incipient
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of incipient
1580–90; < Latin incipient- (stem of incipiēns, present participle of incipere to take in hand, begin), equivalent to in- in- 2 + -cipi- (combining form of capi- take) + -ent- -ent
Explanation
Incipient means something is in an early stage of existence. In its incipient form, basketball was played with a soccer ball and peach baskets for goals. Bouncy orange balls and nets came later. Incipient comes from the Latin incipere "to begin." The related, and more commonly used, word inception means the beginning or the start. It is important to note that when something is in an incipient stage, there is a chance it will never come to completion. So be on the lookout for incipient trouble or an incipient crisis — you might be able to prevent it from happening.
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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.
Charlie McElligott, a strategist at Nomura, pointed out that earnings reports from a number of tech firms exposed incipient weakness in their core businesses.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 30, 2026
What was perceived as incipient became urgent with the arrival of Mythos in April.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 2026
Letter Cresset External link April 16: Recent troubling private-credit headlines prompted market Cassandras to proclaim an incipient credit crisis.
From Barron's ● Apr. 17, 2026
"We kept seeing incipient problems which I thought were not being tackled properly, and indeed I thought the problems were getting worse," he told the House of Commons committee.
From BBC ● Nov. 24, 2025
Different wild plants are native to these disparate environments and would thus have been variously available to incipient farmers in various parts of China.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
