► beginning the start or first part of an event, story, period of time, etc.: He moved to a different school at the beginning of the school year. This has been some of the worst fighting since the beginning of the war.
► start start means the same as beginning: At the start of the second half of the basketball game, the score was 32 to 28.
► origin (also origins) the beginning of something that started a long time ago: Scientists still have many questions about the origins of language in humans.
► birth the time when something starts to exist, especially something important that has a big effect on people’s lives: The website is about the bands of the 1950s and the birth of rock ‘n’ roll.
► creation the time when something was first made: From its creation in 1960, the party has considered itself to be Socialist.
► initiation formal the time when someone begins a new process, program, way of doing things, etc.: Since the initiation of the online discussions, we have seen students becoming more and more involved.
► outbreak a time when fighting or a disease starts: At the outbreak of the war, he was living in Boston.
► the outset the time when you start doing something or when something starts happening: We knew from the outset that it was not going to be an easy task.
► introduction the part at the beginning of a book, report, or speech, which explains what it is about: In the introduction to her book, Julia writes about how she first became interested in cooking.