S: (n) beginning (the first part or section of something) "`It was a dark and stormy night' is a hackneyed beginning for a story"
S: (n) beginning, origin, root, rootage, source (the place where something begins, where it springs into being) "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance"; "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root"
S: (n) beginning, start, commencement (the act of starting something) "he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations"
Verb
S: (v) get down, begin, get, start out, start, set about, set out, commence (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"
S: (v) begin, start (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"
S: (v) begin, lead off, start, commence (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"
S: (v) begin (begin to speak or say) "`Now listen, friends', he began"
S: (v) begin (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"
S: (v) begin (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"
S: (v) begin, start (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"
S: (v) begin, start (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"
S: (v) begin (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"
S: (v) begin (begin to speak, understand, read, and write a language) "She began Russian at an early age"; "We started French in fourth grade"
Adjective
S: (adj) beginning, first (serving to begin) "the beginning canto of the poem"; "the first verse"