beginning

Etymology 1
From, , , equivalent to.

Noun

 * 1)  The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states.
 * 2) That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
 * 3) That which begins or originates something; the source or first cause.
 * 4) The initial portion of some extended thing.
 * The author describes the main character's youth at the beginning of the story.
 * That house is at the beginning of the street.
 * That house is at the beginning of the street.

Usage notes
"In the beginning" is an idiomatic expression that means "at first, initially"; it does not mean the same as "at the beginning".

The meaning of "at the beginning" is clear from its parts. This expression is used to refer to the time when or place where something starts; it is used to refer to points in time and space and also to fairly long periods of time and fairly large extents of space. ("At the beginning of the story" can be used to refer to both the first few sentences and to the first chapter or chapters. "At the beginning of the trail" can be used to refer to both the first few meters and the first part of a trail, which can be quite substantial, even a fifth or fourth or more.)

The originally rare and traditionally deprecated usage of "in the beginning of" (instead of "at the beginning of") has become more common but is still ignored by most dictionaries and other authorities or labeled as unidiomatic or incorrect. Interestingly, there is only rarely confusion between the parallel expressions "in the end" and "at the end (of)".

Translations

 * Arabic: بِدَايَة
 * Armenian:
 * Asturian: comienzu,, empiezu, aniciu
 * Avar: авал
 * Azerbaijani: əvvəl
 * Belarusian: пача́так
 * Bulgarian:
 * Burmese:, ,
 * Catalan:, ,
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Czech: ,
 * Dutch:
 * Estonian: alustamine
 * Finnish:, ,
 * French: ,
 * Middle French: commencement
 * Old French: comencement
 * Galician: comezo, empezo,, inicio
 * Georgian: დაწყება
 * German: ,
 * Gothic: 𐍆𐍂𐌿𐌼𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌹, 𐍆𐍂𐌿𐌼, 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐍃𐍄𐍉𐌳𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃
 * Greek:
 * Ancient: ἀρχή
 * Guaraní: ñepyrumby
 * Haitian Creole: kòmansman
 * Hindi:
 * Hungarian: ,
 * Hunsrik: Aanfang
 * Ido:
 * Interlingua: comenciamento
 * Japanese:, ,
 * Khmer: ការចាប់ផ្ដើម
 * Korean: ,
 * Kurdish:
 * Central Kurdish: دەستپێکردن
 * Northern Kurdish:
 * Ladino: empesijo, impisiju, principio
 * Latin:, , prīmordium, exordium
 * Latvian: sākums
 * Lithuanian:, pradėjimas, debiutas
 * Macedonian: почеток
 * Malayalam: ,
 * Mauritian Creole: komansman
 * Norman: c'menchement
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Occitan: ,
 * Odia: ଆରମ୍ଭ
 * Papiamentu: kuminsamentu
 * Plautdietsch: Aunfank
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:, ,
 * Punjabi:
 * Romagnol: prinzipi
 * Romanian:, , ,
 * Romansch: entschatta,  antscheata,  antschatta,  prinzipi
 * Russian:
 * Sanskrit:, ,
 * Scottish Gaelic: toiseach
 * Serbo-Croatian: почетак,, почињање, počinjanje
 * Slovak:, počiatok
 * Slovene:
 * Spanish:, ,
 * Sranan Tongo: bigin
 * Swedish:, ,
 * Tagalog: simula,
 * Tamil: ,
 * Telugu: ,
 * Thai:
 * Turkish: ,
 * Ukrainian:
 * Vietnamese: phần đầu,
 * Walloon: ,
 * Yiddish: אָנהייב


 * Armenian:
 * Bulgarian:
 * Dutch:
 * Finnish:
 * French: ,
 * Galician: comezo
 * German: Angefangene, Begonnene
 * Hungarian:
 * Malayalam: ,
 * Portuguese: ,
 * Romanian:, ,
 * Russian:
 * Sanskrit:
 * Scottish Gaelic: toiseach
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:
 * Tagalog: simula,
 * Turkish: başlanan


 * Arabic: بِدَايَة
 * Armenian: ,
 * Bulgarian:
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * Czech: ,
 * Dutch: ,
 * Estonian:
 * Finnish:, , alkupiste
 * French: ,
 * Georgian: დასაწყისი
 * German:
 * Haitian Creole: kòmansman
 * Hebrew:
 * Hungarian:, ,
 * Icelandic:
 * Irish: tosach
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: ,
 * Kurdish:
 * Central Kurdish: سەرەتایی
 * Malayalam: ,
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Old English: frymþu
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese: originador,
 * Quechua:
 * Russian: ,
 * Sanskrit:
 * Scottish Gaelic: toiseach
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Slovene: ,
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:, , , , ,
 * Tagalog: simula
 * Tamil:
 * Telugu: ,
 * Turkish:


 * Arabic: بِدَايَة
 * Armenian:
 * Basque: hasiera
 * Bulgarian:
 * Burmese:
 * Czech:
 * Dutch:
 * Esperanto:
 * Estonian:
 * Finnish:, alkuosa, , alku-
 * French:
 * Georgian:
 * German:
 * Greek:
 * Hungarian: (valami) ,
 * Khmer:
 * Kurdish:
 * Central Kurdish: سەرەتایی
 * Ladino: precipio
 * Malayalam: ,
 * Mongolian:
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål:
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:, ,
 * Romanian: ,
 * Russian:
 * Scottish Gaelic: toiseach
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Slovene:, pričetek
 * Spanish:
 * Swedish:, ,
 * Tagalog:
 * Telugu: ,
 * Thai:
 * Turkish:
 * Vietnamese:


 * Esperanto:
 * Korean:

Etymology 2
From, , From (attested only as 🇨🇬), from , present participle of , equivalent to.

Adjective

 * 1)  Of or relating to the first portion of some extended thing.
 * in the beginning paragraph of the chapter
 * in the beginning section of the course

Translations

 * Latin: initiālis, principiālis