What does begin mean?

What does begin mean?. The world's largest and most trusted free online dictionary: definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more.

What does begin mean? - The Free Dictionary

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[n] Israeli statesman (born in Russia) who (as prime minister of Israel) negotiated a peace treaty with Anwar Sadat (then the president of Egypt) (1913-1992)[v] take the first step or steps in carrying out an action(We began working at dawn Who will start? Get working as soon as the sun ri

begin

begin - The Free Dictionary

[n] Israeli statesman (born in Russia) who (as prime minister of Israel) negotiated a peace treaty with Anwar Sadat (then the president of Egypt) (1913-1992)

[v] take the first step or steps in carrying out an action
(We began working at dawn Who will start? Get working as soon as the sun rises! The first tourists began to arrive in Cambodia He began early in the day Let's get down to work now)

[v] have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense
(The DMZ begins right over the hill The second movement begins after the Allegro Prices for these homes start at $250,000)

[v] set in motion, cause to start
(The U.S. started a war in the Middle East The Iraqis began hostilities begin a new chapter in your life)

[v] begin to speak or say
(Now listen, friends,)

[v] be the first item or point, constitute the beginning or start, come first in a series
(The number `one' begins the sequence A terrible murder begins the novel The convocation ceremony officially begins the semester)

[v] have a beginning, of a temporal event
(WW II began in 1939 when Hitler marched into Poland The company's Asia tour begins next month)

[v] have a beginning characterized in some specified way
(The novel begins with a murder My property begins with the three maple trees Her day begins with a workout The semester begins with a convocation ceremony)

[v] begin an event that is implied and limited by the nature or inherent function of the direct object
(begin a cigar She started the soup while it was still hot We started physics in 10th grade)

[v] achieve or accomplish in the least degree, usually used in the negative
(This economic measure doesn't even begin to deal with the problem of inflation You cannot even begin to understand the problem we had to deal with during the war)

[v] begin to speak, understand, read, and write a language
(She began Russian at an early age We started French in fourth grade)

Other vocabulary

b, b battery, b cell, b complex, b horizon, b lymphocyte, b vitamin, b-52, b-complex vitamin, b-flat clarinet, b-girl, b-horizon, b-meson, b-scan ultrasonography, b. b. king, b. f. skinner, b.c., b.c.e., b.o., b.t.u., b.th.u., ba, baa, baa-lamb, baader meinhof gang, baader-meinhof gang, baal, baal merodach, baas, baba, e, e layer, e region, e'en, e'er, e-bomb, e-commerce, e-mail, e-mycin, e. a. von willebrand, e. b. white, e. coli, e. e. cummings, e. g. marshall, e. h. harriman, e. h. weber, e. l. doctorow, e. o. lawrence, e. o. wilson, e. t. a. hoffmann, e. t. s. walton, e. w. morley, e.g., e.s.p., ea, each, each week, each year, eacles, eacles imperialis

Dictionary

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. "informal" or "vulgar") in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta. The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an "astonishing" lack of method and critical-self reflection.