inceptive
Americanadjective
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beginning; initial.
- Synonyms:
- nascent, embryonic, inchoative
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Grammar. (of a derived verb, or of an aspect in verb inflection) expressing the beginning of the action indicated by the underlying verb, as Latin verbs in -scō, which generally have inceptive force, as calēscō “become or begin to be hot” from caleō “be hot.”
noun
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the inceptive aspect.
-
a verb in this aspect.
adjective
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beginning; incipient; initial
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Also called: inchoative. grammar denoting an aspect of verbs in some languages used to indicate the beginning of an action
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inceptive
From the Late Latin word inceptīvus, dating back to 1605–15. See incept, -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"One is at once impressed," admits Psychologist Seashore, "with the appalling task which this inceptive science has assumed for itself, and how undeveloped the work is within this field."
From Time Magazine Archive
Particularly in the playing of Miss Johns one seems to see the gathering nebula of an inceptive star.
From Time Magazine Archive
This author looks upon circumcision as of purely climatic origin in its inceptive causes.
From History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance by Peter Charles Remondino
Imperfect tense, 260; —— conative, 260, 3; —— inceptive, 260, 3; —— with jam, etc.,
From New Latin Grammar by Charles E. (Charles Edwin) Bennett
Therefore, by exhaustion, the commentator finally adopts, for the atha of the sútra, the remaining meaning of "the inceptive now."
From The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha Review of the Different Systems of Hindu Philosophy by Madhava Acharya
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
