How to use initial in a sentence
40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb
Initial means chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin. Example: “Our initial admiration for their efficiency gave way to disgust about their methods.”
Examples of initial by meaning
adjectiveChronologically 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.
- Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 19, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
adjectiveSpatially 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.
verbTo sign one's initial(s), as an abbreviated signature.
- Please initial each page and sign the contract in full at the bottom.
More sentences with initial
- The initial design of the park was rejected for being too expensive.From the entry design
- The sequence S converges to zero for some initial value v.From the entry some
- One branch of English society drops its initial aitches, and another branch ignores its terminal gees.From the entry gee
- After some initial setbacks, the expedition went safely on its way.From the entry setback
- Small changes in initial conditions can have an outsize effect on the course of events.From the entry outsize
- You can reroll if you don't like your character's initial stats.From the entry reroll
- The initial results were inconclusive, so we resampled the tap water.From the entry resample
- He ultimately came out on top after some initial loses in the first few electoral contests.From the entry come out on top
- After an initial lag, the experimental group's scores shot past the control group's scores in the fourth week.From the entry shoot
- His initial foray into print media was as the author of a weekly column in his elementary-school newspaper.From the entry column
- He adjusted his initial conclusion to reflect the new data.From the entry adjust
- Write your initials at the top of the page.From the entry initials
- Water was provided in throwaway plastic bottles, but the more ecologically minded of us refilled our initial bottles from the fountain.From the entry throwaway
- The heavily discounted initial engine sales were offset by the follow-on sales of engines and highly profitable spare parts.From the entry follow-on
- I'd like to play a part in the initial design.From the entry play a part
- You may leave out where you live and use either initials or an alias, since gods, buddhas and other divinities look only at our hearts.From the entry divinity
- Once the SRBs decelerate following initial main-parachute deployment, the parachutes disreef in stages to gradually slow the boosters to a safe splashdown speed.From the entry disreef
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp.From the entry when you're up to your neck in alligators, it's hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp
- Epstein advised that she could always regift them to someone with the same initials.2026 February 5, Jacob Gallagher, “How Epstein Used Luxury Goods to Curry Favor”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original…. From the entry regift
- The initial damage assessment suggests that President Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated” was overstated.2025 June 24, Julian E. Barnes, Helene Cooper, Eric Schmitt, Ronen Bergman, Maggie Haberman, “Strike Set Back Iran’s Nuclear Program by…. From the entry obliterate
- Across Ukraine, the initial shock over the confrontation, which culminated in President Donald Trump summarily dismissing Mr.2025 March 3, Howard LaFranchi, “Ukrainians flock to Zelenskyy’s banner, but hope for solution with US”, in The Christian Science Monitor. From the entry mendicant
- This initial interaction communicates, yes, that the course is not a blowoff class.2024, Russell T. McCutcheon, Teaching in the Study of Religion and Beyond. From the entry blowoff
- After an initial bounce back, the post-Covid Chinese economy has turned sluggish.2023 November 15, Tessa Wong, “Xi Jinping arrives in US as his Chinese Dream sputters”, in BBC. From the entry sluggish
- Therefore, other possible structures are: initial V, initial CV, and VC.2021 October 5, Gessica Puccini, “Lang Belta: the Belter language from SYFY/Amazon’s The Expanse”, in Lingoblog. From the entry c
- The initial version of the q-voter has N spinsons connected on a complete graph.2021, Jamil Civitarese, “External fields, independence, and disorder in q-voter models”, in Physical Review E, volume 103, number 1, →DOI. From the entry spinson
- The initial ambush, conducted with small arms, escalated into deployment of heavy armor supported by rocket artillery.2021 March 29, Blake Herzinger, “China’s Military Could Turn Small Clashes Into Major Conflicts”, in Foreign Policy, archived from the…. From the entry Zhenbao Island
- It trades some initial damage for the burning effect, but that burn is hard-countered by EOD.2021 December 8, Charlie Biggerstaff, “Best Marshal loadout in Warzone, plus how to unlock the Marshal in Warzone”, in Rock Paper Shotgun…. From the entry hard counter
- The initial result of that fragmentation, the nuclear family, didn’t seem so bad.2020 March, David Brooks, “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2020. From the entry nuclear family
- Yet Bossi's initial promise that he would ‘never’ join a government that included postfascists proved short-lived.2020, David Broder, First They Took Rome: How the Populist Right Conquered Italy, Verso Books, →ISBN. From the entry postfascist
- Our initial experience of social distancing and the silence of coronatime seemed to void life.2020 September 22, Vivienne Bozalek, Denise Newfield, Nike Romano, Lieve Carette, Katharine Naidu, Veronica Mitchell, Alex Noble…. From the entry coronatime
- If the initial orbit is hyperbolic, lithobraking would properly be termed lithocapture.2020, Jonathan C. McDowell, “Astronautical Glossary”, in Jonathan's Space Report, retrieved 21 Feb 2021. From the entry lithocapture
- While initial reports Thursday traced the glow to a transformer explosion or a fire, Mr.2018 December 28, Michael Gold, “How an Explosion (Not Aliens) Turned New York’s Night Sky an Electric Blue”, in The New York Times. From the entry transformer
- The initial position of the metacenter is used as a reference in stability calculations.2017 December 12, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12 Stability Information - 1.12.1 Concepts”, in Marine Accident Report: Sinking…. From the entry metacentre
- For the same vessel, a higher GM value indicates a greater initial static stability.2017 December 12, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12 Stability Information - 1.12.1 Concepts”, in Marine Accident Report: Sinking…. From the entry metacentre
- The system selected for initial study was that involving tetramethylmethane and tetrachloromethane.2016, Eric F. Lype, Roger Eichorn, Joseph F. Masi, edited by Joseph F. Masi and Donald H. Tsai, Progress in International Research on…. From the entry tetramethylmethane
Meaning of initial
- adjective Chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin.
- adjective Spatially first, placed at the beginning, in the first position; especially said of the first letter of a word.
- noun The first letter of a word or a name, especially of a person's full name (their initials).
Questions about initial in a sentence
- How do you use initial in a sentence?
- Initial is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “Our initial admiration for their efficiency gave way to disgust about their methods.”
- What is a short sentence with initial?
- “Write your initials at the top of the page.”
- What does initial mean?
- Initial means chronologically first, early; of or pertaining to the beginning, cause or origin.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: initial (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use initial in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/initial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
