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initiation

noun

Simple meaning

The form or ceremony by which a person is introduced into any society.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ihnihsheeayshuhn

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɪnɪʃiˈeɪʃən

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.

noun

  1. The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced.

  2. The form or ceremony by which a person is introduced into any society; mode of entrance into an organized body; especially, the rite of admission into a secret society or order.

  3. chemistry

    The first step of transcription or of transduction.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced.

Used this way, initiation 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
Matter-of-fact
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 initiation

  • “She looked forward to her initiation as an adult.”noun
  • “His initiation into the club.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

initiation ceremonyinitiation codoncrack initiationtranscription initiationchristian initiationinitiation feetranslation initiationinitiation site

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • initialnounDerived noun

    The first letter of a word (especially a person's name).

  • initiallyadverbDerived adverb

    At the beginning.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: initiating

triggerorigination

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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.