Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use initiate in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb, noun, adjective

Initiate means to begin; to start. Example: “The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.”

Examples of initiate by meaning

verbTo begin; to start.

  • It initiates the tactical conception which routs Black's hopes.1961 February, Max Euwe, “How to Win in the Ending”, in Chess Review
  • Indigenous people, such as agriculturists, hunters, and pastoralists initiated a system of totemism and tabooism which in essence was a natural law against killing and eating certain animals.1978, David Dhlalangami Maforo, Black-white Relations in Kenya Game Policy, page 5
  • Then there was the question of initiating or triggering the bomb.2011, Jim Baggott, The First War of Physics, Pegasus Books, →ISBN

More sentences with initiate

  • The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.From the entry alone
  • He initiated the game-winning play with a fancy deked saucer pass to the winger.From the entry fancy
  • The government initiated a drawdown of forces in the border region.From the entry drawdown
  • While the initiated easily understand the symbols, they are wholly inaccessible to outsiders.From the entry outsider
  • Richard had been initiated into the netherworld of dog racing by his father, and knew all the popular greyhound performance-enhancing drugs.From the entry netherworld
  • The German war against Poland initiated by Hitler was justified as a preventive war by Carl Schmitt, German jurist and philosopher.From the entry preventive war
  • Someone else may want to consider whether the AfDs (Articles for deletion) should be closed as initiated disruptively by a sock of an indeffed user.From the entry indeffed
  • Germany can’t afford to stick to the stately plod into decline that Merkel initiated any longer.2025 February 23, Lisa Haseldine, “Whatever happens next, Merkelism is finished”, in The Telegraph, archived from the original on 23 Feb…. From the entry Germany
  • “I did not initiate, welcome, encourage, engage in, or learn from much less enjoy, Bailey’s tirade.2024 July 25, Kara Scannell, “Judge who ordered Trump to pay $454 million says he was ‘accosted’ by lawyer and won’t recuse himself from…. From the entry defamatorily
  • Autopolymerisation or self-curing relies on the incorporation of chemical agents, as activators, to initiate polymerization.2020 April 23, Rena L. J. Cruz, Maureen T. Ross, Sean K. Powell, Maria A. Woodruf, “The Chemistry of Imitating Life”, in Frontiers in…. From the entry autopolymerisation
  • Ablɔɖe was initiated and sustained by a shoemaker named Holiday V.2019, Katharine Alexandra Collier Skinner, Wilson Yayoh, editors, Writing the New Nation in a West African Borderland: Ablɔɖe Safui (the…. From the entry Eʋe
  • It signified that the scout first initiated a request to undergo a rather scary test.2012 November 19, Robert Colacurcio PhD, Real Presence: a Method for Finding God in All Things, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 10. From the entry Webelo
  • Who hasn't declared a plan to initiate change tomorrow, next week, or after some event happens?2011, Susan Albers, But I Deserve This Chocolate!: The Fifty Most Common Diet-Derailing Excuses and How to Outwit Them, New Harbinger…. From the entry Scarlet O'Hara
  • Mostly whiteshirts, from initiate Healers to patrolmen to Electors and ArchPaladins in full battle gear.2010, Tim Akers, The Horns of Ruin, Amherst, N.Y.: Pyr, →ISBN, page 266. From the entry archpaladin
  • The initiate falls to the ground in a stupor after drinking the iboga brew.2009, Marlene Dobkin de Rios, The Psychedelic Journey of Marlene Dobkin de Rios, page 85. From the entry Bwiti
  • To enter the Bwiti religion initiates must see Bwiti, the Ancestors.2007, Christina Pratt, “Bwiti”, in An Encyclopedia of Shamanism, Volume One: A-M, page 75. From the entry Bwiti
  • Antony van Leeuwenhoek initiated the herculian task of 'microscope making' through his inherent hobby of 'lens making'.2007, Ashutosh Kar, Pharmaceutical Microbiology, New Age International, →ISBN, page 4. From the entry herculian
  • The ridealong probe questions used to initiate the unstructured interviews are listed in Appendix A.2006, Edward J. Glantz (Pennsylvania State University), Challenges supporting cognitive activities in dynamic work, page 46. From the entry ridealong
  • Once initiated into the band, a swordbrother was bound to serve for life.2006, Josephine Godby, To Suffer the Crown, page 22. From the entry swordbrother
  • The politics-administration dichotomy initiated by Wilson was later elaborated by Frank J.2005, S. P. Naidu, Public Administration: Concepts And Theories, page 55. From the entry dichotomy
  • Tics are brief, stereotypical behaviors that are initiated by an unconscious urge that can be temporarily suppressed.2005, Lloyd J. Brown, Lee Todd Miller, Pediatrics, page 383. From the entry stereotypical
  • I had initiated an African ritual by giving the pipe to him.2005, Al Lovejoy, Acid Alex. From the entry oke
  • A childline service has been initiated by the ministry under the integrated programme for street children.2004, J. S. Rajput, Encyclopaedia of Indian Education: A-K, page 239. From the entry childline
  • Toloache was taken for vision quests and to initiate boys into manhood.2000, Joseph C. Winter, Tobacco Use by Native North Americans: Sacred Smoke and Silent Killer, page 33. From the entry toloache
  • Not the rider takes the contact, that would be invasive and contraproductive, the HORSE initiates it.1999 August 12, CATJA ALEXANDRA PAFORT, “My Mare's Problem & Mine (Long)”, in rec.equestrian (Usenet), retrieved 02 May 2022. From the entry contraproductive
  • The increased size of biosediments probably initiated the process of biosediment oxidation.1998, Russian Journal of Marine Biology - Volume 24, page 55. From the entry biosediment
  • The seclusion lodge houses circumcision initiates, keeping them separate from the rest of the community.1996, Jerry D Moore, Architecture and Power in the Ancient Andes, page 140. From the entry seclusion lodge
  • Another Canadian example is that of the so-called Halfback Program initiated in the province of Ontario.1988, Ingrid Coetzee, Gerhard-Mark Van der Waal, Conservation of Culture: Changing Context and Challenges. From the entry so-called
  • Three lodges—Borderland, Gunflint Lodge, and Bearskin Lodge—have initiated a ski-thru program.1982 November, Mitch Mode, “Update: Cross Country Midwest”, in Dick Needham, editor, Ski, volume 47, number 3, New York, N.Y.: Times…. From the entry ski-thru
  • Apparently, once initiated, patients primal in any place at any time for the rest of their lives.1979, The Journal of Orgonomy, volume 13, number 1, page 108. From the entry primal
  • He initiated the move to bring about self reliant, fearless and upright ladihood in the country.1978, History of the Sikh Gurus: A Comprehensive Study, page 197. From the entry ladihood
  • In fact, half of all such words for this corpus are initiated by only 39 different trigrams!1974, Edward C. Carterette, Margaret Hubbard Jones, Informal Speech: Alphabetic & Phonemic Texts with Statistical Analyses and Tables…. From the entry trigram
  • It debugs all program errors, including those that are hardware initiated.1970, Behavior Research Methods and Instrumentation, volume 2, page 36. From the entry debug
  • Typically, damage initiates at the smaller crosssection end of the truncated cone.1956, Journal of the American Helicopter Society, page 41. From the entry crosssection
  • Early mentality, in initiating phallic worship, was never in any way guilty of licentiousness or obscenity.1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the…. From the entry licentiousness
  • An initiated aboriginal man made womanly by sub-incision can imitate the womb's ability to open.1929, Nor Hall, Warren Royal Dawson, Brood Males. From the entry wombly
  • There have been initiated into the order nearly thirty thousand Hoo-Hoos scattered all over the entire world.1917, National Magazine - Volume 46, page 244. From the entry hoo-hoo

Meaning of initiate

  1. verb To begin; to start.
  2. verb To instruct in the rudiments or principles; to introduce.
  3. verb To confer membership on; especially, to admit to a secret order with mysterious rites or ceremonies.

Full definition of initiate

Questions about initiate in a sentence

How do you use initiate in a sentence?
Initiate is used as a verb, noun and adjective. For example: “The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.”
What is a short sentence with initiate?
“It initiates the tactical conception which routs Black's hopes.”
What does initiate mean?
Initiate means to begin; to start.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: initiate (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.

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Cite this page: “How to use initiate in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/initiate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.