Start

How to spell start

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce start

What does start mean?

1. verbTo begin an action, process, or activity.
2. nounThe point or moment at which something begins.
3. verbTo make a sudden involuntary movement, usually from surprise or alarm.

Start in a sentence

• verb

  We plan to start the meeting at nine sharp.

• noun

  The project got off to a slow start this quarter.

• verb

  The loud bang made him start in his chair.

• verb

  The builders will start work on the extension next month.

• noun

  An early start helped them beat the traffic.

Where does start come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Start traces back to the Old English steortian and the related verb styrtan, which carried the sense of leaping up or moving suddenly, and it is connected to the noun steort meaning a tail or projecting point. The early meaning was very physical: to jump, to dart, or to make a sudden involuntary movement, a sense that survives whenever we say someone starts at a loud noise. From this idea of springing into motion the word gradually broadened to mean setting something going or beginning an action, which became its dominant meaning by the Middle Ages. The word has solid Germanic relatives, including the Dutch storten and German sturzen, both tied to ideas of plunging or rushing. Because it is short, native, and spelled exactly as it sounds, start almost never troubles adult writers; its history is more interesting than its spelling.

How the word is built

• start (a single Old English root meaning to leap or jump; no separable prefix or suffix)