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begin

verb

Simple meaning

Take the first step or steps in carrying out an action.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

bihgin

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

bɪˈɡɪn

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. ergative

    Take the first step or steps in carrying out an action

  2. ergative

    To start, to initiate or take the first step into something.

  3. intransitive

    To come into existence.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Take the first step or steps in carrying out an action

Used this way, begin is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use begin

  • “The novel begins with a murder.”verb
  • “The number `one' begins the sequence.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

now begin

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • beginningnounInflected form

    The event consisting of the start of something.

  • beginnernounInflected form

    Someone new to a field or activity.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • beginning rhymenounCompound term

    Use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse.

  • to begin withadverbCompound term

    Before now.

  • tone-beginningnounCompound term

    A decisive manner of beginning a musical tone or phrase.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.