Beginning

How to spell beginning

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce beginning

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does beginning mean?

1. nounThe point in time or space at which something starts, or the early part of it.

Beginning in a sentence

• The beginning of the report should summarise the main findings.

• From the very beginning, she knew the project would run late.

Where does beginning come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb beginnan, meaning 'to attempt' or 'to start', which combined the intensifying prefix be- with the root -ginnan, an element meaning roughly 'to open up' or 'to start'. The root never stood alone in English; it always travelled with a prefix, surviving today only inside 'begin'. Related forms appear across the Germanic languages, such as the Old High German biginnan, showing that the word is part of the native Germanic word-stock rather than a later borrowing. The noun 'beginning', formed by adding the -ing suffix to the verb, was in use by the Middle English period to name the point or process of starting. The spelling trap lives in the doubled n: because the verb 'begin' stresses its final syllable, the consonant doubles before -ing, giving 'beginning' rather than the often-written 'begining'.

How the word is built

• be- (intensive prefix)
• gin (root from Old English -ginnan: to begin)
• -n- (doubled consonant)
• -ing (noun/gerund suffix)