1. [noun] (uncountable) The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance into being or upon a course; the first act, effort, or state of a succession of acts or states.
2. [noun] That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
3. [noun] That which begins or originates something; the first cause; origin; source.
4. [noun] The initial portion of some extended thing.
5. [verb] Present participle of begin
6. [adjective] (informal) Of or relating to the first portion of some extended thing.
7. [noun] The event consisting of the start of something; 'the beginning of the war'.
8. [noun] The time at which something is supposed to begin; 'they got an early start'; 'she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her'.
9. [noun] The first part or section of something; '`It was a dark and stormy night' is a hackneyed beginning for a story'.
10. [noun] 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'.
11. [noun] The act of starting something; 'he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations'.
12. [adjective] Serving to begin; 'the beginning canto of the poem'; 'the first verse'.