Beginner
nounA person who is starting to learn or do something for the first time and has little experience.
How to spell beginner
8 letters · 3 syllables
How to pronounce beginner
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does beginner mean?
- nounA person who is starting to learn or do something for the first time and has little experience.
Beginner in a sentence
-
The evening class is aimed at the complete beginner who has never touched a guitar.
-
As a beginner, she found the spreadsheet formulas confusing at first.
Where does beginner come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word beginner is built on the verb begin, which comes from the Old English beginnan, meaning 'to start' or 'to undertake'. That verb was formed from the intensifying prefix be- attached to a root tied to opening or initiating an action, and it has close cousins in Old High German and Dutch beginnen. The agent suffix -er, also of Germanic origin, turns the verb into a noun naming the person who does the action, so a beginner is literally 'one who begins'. This -er pattern is the same machinery that gives us teacher, runner and worker. The chief spelling trap is the doubled n: because begin ends in a single stressed n, the consonant doubles before -er, exactly as it does in winner and runner.
How the word is built
- begin (Old English beginnan: to start)
- -er (agent suffix: one who does)
Fix your spelling for good.
Spelling Garden finds the words you personally get wrong, plants them in a garden, and brings each one back just before you would have forgotten it.
Just five minutes a day is all it takes to fix your spelling.