initial
Syllables: in·i·tial/ɪˈnɪʃ.əl/
initial adjective: chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin.
Adjective
initial (not comparable)
- Chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin.
- Our initial admiration for their efficiency gave way to disgust about their methods.
- The initial stages of a syndrome may differ vastly from the final symptoms.
- Spatially first, placed at the beginning, in the first position; especially said of the first letter of a word.
- The initial letter of names is usually printed with a capital letter.
- Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC
Noun
initial (plural initials)
- The first letter of a word or a name, especially of a person's full name (their initials).
- The point of interest about this particular specimen was that it must have remained intact for at least a quarter of a century, as it had embossed in the frosted glass the initials of the old Great North of Scotland Railway in the form of a scroll, the sort of relic of pre-grouping days that can...1952 February, H. C. Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in Railway Magazine, page 77
- A distinguished initial letter of a chapter or section of a document.
- onset, part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus in phonetics and phonology.
Verb
initial (third-person singular simple present initials, present participle (US) initialing or (UK) initialling, simple past and past participle (US) initialed or (UK) initialled)
initial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
initial in Hindi
- initial, first
- आरंभिक ārambhik
- initial, primeval, early, archaic
- आदिम ādim
- initial, beginning, preliminary
- शुरुआती śuruātī
- initial
- प्रारंभिक prārambhik
initial in Tamil
- தொடக்க, முதலாவது, சுருக்கொப்பம்
initial in Marathi
- initial, beginning, or occurring at the start
- आरंभक ārambhaka
initial in Urdu
- آغازی, ابتدائی, پہلا, شروع کا
More languagesFewer languages
- initial in Bengali
- আগের ager
- initial in Malayalam
- തുടക്കത്തിലുള്ള, പ്രാരംഭമായ, ആരംഭത്തിലുള്ള, പ്രാഥമികം
- initial in Kannada
- ಮೊದಲಕ್ಷರ, ಆದ್ಯಕ್ಷರ, ಕಿರುಸಹಿ ಹಾಕು, ಸಣ್ಣರುಜು ಹಾಕು
- initial in Punjabi
- پلیٹھا paleṭhā
- initial in Arabic
- أَوَّلِيّ ʔawwaliyy, أَوَّل ʔawwal, حَرْف أَوَّلِيّ ḥarf ʔawwaliyy
- initial in Malay
- inisial
- initial in Vietnamese
- thanh mẫu
Examples of initial in a sentence
- The initial design of the park was rejected for being too expensive.
- The sequence S converges to zero for some initial value v.
- One branch of English society drops its initial aitches, and another branch ignores its terminal gees.
Synonyms of initial
Antonyms
Forms of initial
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | initials |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | initials |
| present participle US | initialing |
| present participle UK | initialling |
| past participle US | initialed |
| past US | initialed |
| past participle UK | initialled |
| past UK | initialled |
Origin of initial
From Middle French initial or directly from its Latin etymon initiālis (“of the beginning, incipient, initial”), from initium (“a going in, entrance”), from inīre (“to go into, enter”), from in (“in”) + ire (“to go”).
Words formed from initial
- coinitial
- head-initial
- initial caps
- initial coin offering
- initial condition
- initially
- initial mass function
- initialness
- initial object
- initial point
- initial public offering
- initial reject
- initial setting time
- initial topology
- initial-value problem
- initial value problem
- noninitial
- peninitial
- wordinitial
- preinitial
- initialese
- initialism
- initialist
- initial teaching alphabet
- middle initial
Phrases with initial
Words that rhyme with initial
- official
- superficial
- artificial
- judicial
- unofficial
- beneficial
- prejudicial
- adventitial
- comitial
- extrajudicial
- interstitial
- sacrificial
16 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about initial
- What does initial mean?
- Initial means chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin.
- What is initial in Hindi?
- Initial in Hindi is आरंभिक (ārambhik), आदिम (ādim), शुरुआती (śuruātī). See Initial meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is initial?
- Initial can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce initial?
- Initial is pronounced /ɪˈnɪʃ.əl/.
Words near initial in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: initial (page history and authors); आदिम (Hindi) (page history and authors); initial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); आरंभक (Marathi) (page history and authors); initial (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); আগের (Bengali) (page history and authors); initial (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); initial (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); پلیٹھا (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-initial.ogg.
Cite this entry: “initial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/initial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.