ab initio

American

[ahb i-nit-ee-oh, ab i-nish-ee-oh] / ɑb ɪˈnɪt iˌoʊ, æb ɪˈnɪʃ iˌoʊ /

adverb

Latin.

from the beginning.

ab initio British

/ æb ɪˈnɪʃɪˌəʊ /

from the start; from scratch

ab initio courses

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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ab initio

Many universities now offer "ab initio" undergraduate courses for languages, meaning you can start as a complete beginner - something Prof Koglbauer says has bolstered uptake.

From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2025

While the research team focused exclusively on quantum Monte Carlo simulations, wavefunction matching should be useful for many different ab initio approaches.

From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024

Using precise ab initio calculations, the results closely matched real-world data on nuclear properties such as size, structure and binding energy.

From Science Daily ● May 15, 2024

The void ab initio doctrine has obvious application in SisterSong.

From Slate ● Nov. 16, 2022

Gifts similar or cognate his father had received, as also had his grandfather, his great-grandfather and so on ab initio.

From The Paliser case by Edgar Saltus

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023