origin

American  

[awr-i-jin, or-] / ˈɔr ɪ dʒɪn, ˈɒr- /

noun

origins plural

1. something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead.

   to follow a stream to its origin.

   Synonyms:

   foundation, root

   Antonyms:

   end, destination

2. rise or derivation from a particular source.

   the origin of a word.

3. the first stage of existence; beginning.

   the origin of Quakerism in America.

4. ancestry; parentage; extraction.

   to be of Scottish origin.

   Synonyms:

   descent, linage, birth

5. Anatomy.

   1. the point of derivation.

   2. the more fixed portion of a muscle.

6. Mathematics.

   1. the point in a Cartesian coordinate system where the axes intersect.

   2. Also called pole.  the point from which rays designating specific angles originate and are measured from in a polar coordinate system with no axes.

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origin British  

/ ˈɒrɪdʒɪn /

noun

1. a primary source; derivation

2. the beginning of something; first stage or part

3. (often plural) ancestry or parentage; birth; extraction

4. anatomy

   1. the end of a muscle, opposite its point of insertion

   2. the beginning of a nerve or blood vessel or the site where it first starts to branch out

5. maths

   1. the point of intersection of coordinate axes or planes

   2. the point whose coordinates are all zero See also pole 2

6. commerce the country from which a commodity or product originates

   shipment from origin

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origin Scientific  

/ ôr′ə-jĭn /

1. The point at which the axes of a Cartesian coordinate system intersect. The coordinates of the origin are (0,0) in two dimensions and (0,0,0) in three dimensions.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• origins
  plural

Etymology

Origin of origin

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin orīgin-, stem of orīgō “beginning, source, lineage,” from or(īrī) “to rise” ( cf. orient) + -īgō, noun suffix

Explanation

An origin is a start. You could say that the origin of yoga was in India, since that's where the practice began, or that the origin of the strawberries in the market is Mexico, since they were grown there. If your best friend asks you about the origin of your fear of mariachi bands, it means that she wants to know where your phobia came from. Your ancestry is another kind of origin — you might mention your Eastern European origin if that's where your ancestors came from. The root, start, or birth of something is its origin. The origin of the word origin is the Latin word originem, meaning "rise, beginning, or source."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

origin origins

"Further discoveries could reveal the origin of this apparent 'orphan' black hole," Stein said.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026

As a condition of being tax-exempt, nonprofit private schools must attest that they won’t discriminate based on race, color, or national or ethnic origin.

From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026

Armed with stolen credentials of unknown origin, the AI interloper popped up a “swarm” of short-lived attackers that conducted reconnaissance of the Hugging Face network.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

But an even bigger reason is that we continue to know relatively little about its origin.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026

However, history textbooks for young people rarely invite students to question or think critically about that part of the US origin story.

From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Health experts that spoke to the BBC said it is often difficult to track the origins of cyclospora, the parasite that when consumed causes the intestinal illness cyclosporiasis.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

After spending the early 2000s as an engineer in Silicon Valley, he observed that the memory industry was slowly migrating away from its U.S. origins to Japan, then Korea and Taiwan.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026

Their experiments suggest that the attraction to crystals may have deep evolutionary origins that predate modern humans.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026

Popular around my firehouse is a line directly cribbed from its military origins: “Death smiles at everyone. Firefighters smile back.”

From Slate ● Jul. 10, 2026

There were large archways and intricate etchings that told the story of the Twelve Towns’ origins.

From "Witchlings" by Claribel A. Ortega

Related Words

• ancestor
• ancestry
• connection
• element
• influence
• motive
• provenance
• root
• source