Word.ws English Dictionary

initiative

/ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/

initiative adjective: serving to initiate.

Adjective

initiative (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) Serving to initiate.
    • As for Apollos he was skillfull in the Scriptures, and mightily confuted the Iewes by them, he had more then this initiative wisedome, and knew better the difference betweene the baptisme of Christ, and of Iohn, then it seemeth this Iesuite doth.1632, Roger Puttock, A Rejoynder unto William Malone’s Reply to the First Article, Dublin: The Company of Stationers, page 78
    • suspected! that indefinite word, which was tortured into every meaning of injustice and oppression, and became what the French call the mot de ralliement, the initiative term of captivity and death1795, Helen Maria Williams, Letters Containing a Sketch of the Politics of France, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, Volume 1, Letter 1, p. 5
  2. (US) In which voter initiatives can be brought to the ballot.
    • The second row shows that initiative states fill more constitutional offices by election than noninitiative states, and the difference is statistically significant after controlling for region and population.a. 2008, John G. Matsusaka, "Direct Democracy and the Executive Branch", in, 2008, Shaun Bowler and Amihai Glazer, editors, Direct Democracy's Impact on American Political Institutions, Palgrave...
    Antonyms:
    noninitiative

Noun

initiative (countable and uncountable, plural initiatives)

  1. A beginning; a first move.
    • Pastor Moses says the initiative was born of pragmatism, compassion toward all Sri Lankans, and a desire to model the same generosity he experienced as a young person. […] Not only are all religions welcome at the Voice Community Kitchen, but experts also say such initiatives could be key to...2023 January 6, Munza Mushtaq, “In Sri Lanka, Pastor Moses shows the power of a free lunch”, in The Christian Science Monitor, archived from the original on 26 Jun 2026
  2. A new development; a fresh approach to something; a new way of dealing with a problem.
  3. The ability to act first or on one's own.
    • The theoretical source, or rather justification, of that machine was Lenin's conviction that the party, by virtue of its scientific knowledge of society, is the one legitimate source of political initiative.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...
  4. An issue to be voted on, brought to the ballot by a sufficient number of signatures from among the voting public.

initiative meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

initiative in Hindi

a beginning; a first move
पहल pahal

initiative in Tamil

முன்னெடுப்பு, முன்முனைவு, துவக்க முயற்சி, முனைப்பு, புது முயற்சி

initiative in Marathi

पुढाकार

initiative in Urdu

آغاز, ہدایت, شروع
More languagesFewer languages
initiative in Bengali
যোজনা jōjona, প্রকল্প prokolpo
initiative in Telugu
చొరవ
initiative in Malayalam
ഉദ്യമം udyamaṁ, തുടക്കം tuṭakkaṁ
initiative in Kannada
ಮೊದಲ ಹೆಜ್ಜೆ, ಪ್ರಾರಂಭ, ತೊಡಗುವಿಕೆ, ಕರ್ತೃತ್ವ ಶಕ್ತಿ
initiative in Punjabi
ਪਹਿਲ pahil
initiative in Gujarati
પહેલ
initiative in Nepali
पहल
initiative in Arabic
مُبَادَرَة mubādara
initiative in Indonesian
inisiatif, prakarsa
initiative in Persian
ابتکار ebtekâr

Examples of initiative in a sentence

  • Our taxes are being funnelled into pointless government initiatives.
  • After the third massive failure, John called the whole initiative.
  • The government announced a new initiative to help the unemployed.

All 40 example sentences with initiative

Synonyms of initiative

Antonyms

Forms of initiative

pluralinitiatives

Plural of initiative: initiatives

Origin of initiative

From French initiative, from Medieval Latin *initiativus (“serving to initiate”), from Late Latin initiare (“to begin, to initiate”), from Latin initium (“beginning”), from ineo (“enter, begin”). By surface analysis, initiate + -ive.

Words formed from initiative

Phrases with initiative

Words that rhyme with initiative

Questions about initiative

What does initiative mean?
Initiative means serving to initiate.
What is initiative in Hindi?
Initiative in Hindi is पहल (pahal). See Initiative meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is initiative?
Initiative can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce initiative?
Initiative is pronounced /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/.

Words near initiative in the dictionary

  1. initiation codon
  2. initiation codons
  3. initiational
  4. initiationism
  5. initiations
  6. initiative
  7. initiatively
  8. initiativeness
  9. initiatives
  10. initiator
  11. initiatories

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: initiative (page history and authors); initiative (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); initiative (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); initiative (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); প্রকল্প (Bengali) (page history and authors); initiative (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); initiative (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਪਹਿਲ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); initiative (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); initiative (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-initiative.ogg.

Cite this entry: “initiative.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/initiative. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.