The way Reverse Dictionary works is pretty simple. It simply looks through tonnes of dictionary definitions and grabs the ones that most closely match your search query. For example, if you type something like «longing for a time in the past», then the engine will return «nostalgia». The engine has indexed several million definitions so far, and at this stage it’s starting to give consistently good results (though it may return weird results sometimes). It acts a lot like a thesaurus except that it allows you to search with a definition, rather than a single word. So in a sense, this tool is a «search engine for words», or a sentence to word converter.
I made this tool after working on Related Words which is a very similar tool, except it uses a bunch of algorithms and multiple databases to find similar words to a search query. That project is closer to a thesaurus in the sense that it returns synonyms for a word (or short phrase) query, but it also returns many broadly related words that aren’t included in thesauri. So this project, Reverse Dictionary, is meant to go hand-in-hand with Related Words to act as a word-finding and brainstorming toolset. For those interested, I also developed Describing Words which helps you find adjectives and interesting descriptors for things (e.g. waves, sunsets, trees, etc.).
In case you didn’t notice, you can click on words in the search results and you’ll be presented with the definition of that word (if available). The definitions are sourced from the famous and open-source WordNet database, so a huge thanks to the many contributors for creating such an awesome free resource.
Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: Elastic Search, @HubSpot, WordNet, and @mongodb.
Please note that Reverse Dictionary uses third party scripts (such as Google Analytics and advertisements) which use cookies. To learn more, see the privacy policy.
In the beginning, you might say, was genesis. The name given to the first book of the Old Testament describes the creation of Adam and Eve along with the earth and the heavens. The book even begins with the words «In the beginning,» making genesis the ne plus ultra, perhaps, of beginning words.
Genesis derives via Latin from the Greek gignesthai, meaning «to be born,» and can refer to the origin or beginning of anything from a heavenly body to an idea.
The genesis and maturation of a planet, its poise and orbit, the bended tree recovering itself from the strong wind, the vital resources of every animal and vegetable, are demonstrations of the self-sufficing, and therefore self-relying soul.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, «Self-Reliance,» 1841
MORE TO EXPLORE: Top 10 Words from the Bible
Commencer in French means «to begin»; we get our verb commence via Middle English and Anglo-French from a Latin word that was formed by combining com- («with») with initiare («to begin»). Initiare is the root of our verb initiate. So even though they look nothing alike in English, commence and initiate have the same origin.
He cast a sinister look at the little flame which I had enticed to play between the ribs, swept the cat from its elevation, and bestowing himself in the vacancy, commenced the operation of stuffing a three-inch pipe with tobacco.
— [Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, 1847
Interestingly, we use commencement to refer to the ceremony given to confer diplomas to those who have completed the requirements to graduate from a school. While that might seem like the end of one journey, it is for many the beginning of another, and commencement conveys that. In British English, commence can mean «to take a degree at a university.»
The use of square one to mean «the initial stage or starting point» might call to mind board games such as Chutes and Ladders, where certain penalties require a player to move their piece back to an earlier space on the board. Because of that, the idiom back to square one usually doesn’t have a positive meaning; rather, it’s about making a new attempt after a previous (usually prolonged) effort has failed.
In any event, with Cash released and everybody back to square one, actually not even up to square one considering the nearly full-day head start they had given the shooter, at this late hour Matty was relegated to poring over Manhattan robbery-pattern reports from the last six months, the monthly All Sheets of unsolved crimes, keeping it close to home, though, the Eighth, the Fifth, and the Ninth, because a deer never travels more than a mile from where it was born and always walks in the path of its ancestors.
— Richard Price, Lush Life, 2008
Early uses of the phrase, from the 1950s, make reference to board games, though some scholars have attributed the origin of the phrase back to square one to how soccer games were announced over radio.
The noun preamble is the name we give to the first section of the U.S. Constitution, the 52-word paragraph that begins «We the People» and lays out the purpose of the document that follows.
The amble in preamble comes from the Latin verb meaning «to walk» (as found in ambulance and ambulatory); the Late Latin praeambulus means «walking in front of.» In broader use, preamble can refer to any introductory statement or section of a text, or a fact or circumstance from which other events follow.
Lily, oppressed by the close atmosphere, and the stifling odour of fresh mourning, felt her attention straying as Mrs. Peniston’s lawyer, solemnly erect behind the Buhl table at the end of the room, began to rattle through the preamble of the will.
— Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, 1905
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Latin phrase ab ovo, meaning «from the egg,» might sounds like it’s taking a position on answering that classic riddle. But ab ovo is actually part of a longer phrase written by the poet Horace: ab ovo usque ad mala, which translates to «from the egg to the apples.»
The phrase alludes to a pattern seen in Roman dining, that of starting a meal with eggs and finishing it with apples. It was an English writer, Sir Philip Sidney, who is credited with giving ab ovo a figurative application, referring to the beginning of an action.
«Given Arthur’s fondness for approaching a problem ab ovo, without reference to previous results, and adding to it a certain obscurity of presentation that even I, who knew him well, had found disturbing, it was a wonder that he had done as well as he had.»
— Charles Sheffield, A Braver Thing, 1990
In a way similar to preamble, exordium denotes an introductory section to something written, usually a discourse or composition. It can also be used for the opening piece in a collection (as of poetry), usually one that sets the tone for what follows:
A disarmingly small first poem, “For the Book,” offers an exordium reminiscent of Roman playboy Catullus’s disclaimer in which he distinguished his “novum libellum,” or “new little book,” from the exhaustive tomes of historians…
— Heather Treseler, Boston Review, 20 Oct. 2015
Foreword, preface, and prologue are other words used for the opening section of a text. Exordium derives from a Latin noun that combines the prefix ex- with ordiri, a verb meaning «to begin.»
Get-go (and idioms such as from/since the get-go) originated in African-American slang, with early uses dating from the 1960s attributed to writers such as Toni Cade Bambara.
Things ain’t getting no better fast. Like I said, I ain’t been feeling right since the get-go and now there’s three dudes stead of one to deal with and that sure ain’t gon make things no easier.
— John Edgar Wideman, Brothers and Keepers, 1984
Despite its slangy origin, from/since the get-go is now used by speakers of all backgrounds, even occasionally in formal writing. Its origin is uncertain, with phrases such as get going noted as a possible influence.
A phrase with a similar rhythm is from the word go, which calls to mind an official giving a signal to start a race. That phrase is much older than from the get-go, with evidence dating to the early 19th century.
An overture can be an introductory gesture or proposal, but in the field of music it’s the orchestral introduction to a dramatic work, such as an opera. The William Tell Overture, for example, opens Rossini’s opera by that name.
To make a non-musical overture to someone means to make an offer or suggestion to start talking or negotiating with someone, often someone you don’t know well or haven’t been talking to much until that point.
Although Meadows has made an overture to Pelosi to restart talks, he wasn’t optimistic that a deal would actually be reached before the government funding deadline next month.
— Heather Caygle, Politico, 27 Aug. 2020
Even though it begins with over, and suggests a crossing over distances, overture is not related to over. Instead it was formed from a Vulgar Latin alteration of apertura, the word for an aperture or opening.
Incipient has all of the credentials required to make this list, starting with the fact that it derives from the Latin verb incipere («to begin») and is related to incipit, a term that literally means «it begins» and which was used for the opening words of a medieval text. (Incipere also gives us our noun inception).
Early uses of the word occurred in scientific contexts, describing things (such as new species) just coming into being, though writers soon took to using the word for other things in early stages of development.
There is nothing so inspiring in life as the sight of a legitimate ambition, no matter how incipient. It gives colour, force, and beauty to the possessor.
— Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie, 1900
ENDINGS: 7 Words for When Things Don’t Pan Out as Planned
I’m looking for a single word to indicate a point in time which is either the beginning or end of an event.
Edit, for a better example: A bell rings at the start a round of boxing. A bell rings at the end of a round of boxing. Assuming the bell rings at no other times, we can say the bell always rings at the BLANK of a round.
Currently, for BLANK, I’m using the phrase «start or end.» It feels clunky. I’d like to replace it with a single word, if possible.
asked Oct 21, 2013 at 16:50
UserUser
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Transition can be used to describe a generic change of the software state, including the beginning and end points that mark a state that exists over time.
We use this term transition in engineering to indicate changes from one state (which is ending) to another state (which is beginning).
Transition: passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another: change;
It can also be used to express changes in abstract phases of operational behavior. For example, the transition from the data collection phase to the data reduction phase clearly marks the point when one phase ends and another phase begins.
Using «transition» would not be in conflict with parallel processes. In the example given above, the data reduction phase can transition from idle to active, even while the data collection phase continues in parallel.
answered Oct 22, 2013 at 2:52
Canis LupusCanis Lupus
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Terminus (plural termini, if you want to be stuffy) is the Latin word for either end of a 1-dimensional extent, and specifically of motion along that dimension. If one uses a Time Is Linear Motion metaphor theme, and considers the timeline of an event, one can talk about the beginning as the terminus a quo ‘the terminus from which’, and the ending as the terminus ad quem ‘the terminus toward which’. These are all established words and phrases in English.
This answer was submitted as a comment by John Lawler.
answered Mar 25, 2014 at 15:54
UserUser
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Any interval has its limits, either in time or space, and there is a right-hand limit or left-hand limit, or max and min, or whatever, but why the «limit» will not suffice?
answered Mar 23, 2014 at 22:29
Epoch — the beginning of a distinctive period in the history of someone or something.
welfare reform was an epoch in the history of U.S. social policy.
It doesn’t apply to the end of a period, but the beginning for sure.
tchrist♦
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answered Aug 1, 2015 at 13:54
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Cheers to a fresh start
As the celebrations of a new year continue—with the Lunar New Year starting on Jan. 22, 2023—you may be thinking about the fresh start ushered in by this coming year. This is a season of joyous beginnings for many. And one of the words we can use to refer to it may surprise you: it’s commencement. How is that, you ask?
Commencement is both “the ceremony of conferring degrees or granting diplomas at the end of the academic year” and also “an act or instance of commencing; beginning,” reflecting an earlier use of the word. Not surprisingly then, it comes from the Latin cominitiāre (“to begin”).
Like graduates, we’re embarking on a new beginning—how meaningful it will be remains to be seen! But let’s take a look at the different and sometimes unusual words used to talk about beginnings and starting over.
From genesis to exordium, here are new ways to talk about your freshest endeavors.
Вы видите, начало что-то же важны, как веса без плана создает себе настроение на провал.
Он объявлял о начале чего-то нового, отличающегося от прошлого настолько же сильно, как свет от тьмы.
OcHoBыBaTb[asnovyvat’]- to establish- we use this verb,
when we need to tell about the beginning of something, when, for example, a city, harbour or any establishment was found.
Основывать[ asnovyvat’] to establish- этот глагол пригодится тогда,
когда вам необходимо рассказать про какое-то начало, когда начал существовать, к примеру, город, порт или
какое-то
учреждение.
They will say it after their demonstration; it seems they are going to show
the
whole evolution
of
physical culture, and then, at
the
end, they will say,»We have not reached
the
end,
Они скажут это после своей демонстрации; кажется, они собираются показать всю историю физической культуры, а в конце скажут:« Мы еще не достигли конца,
Важно то, что это начало чего-то, что я думаю, может быть очень важным.
Но чем больше я думала об этом, тем больше понимала, что это начало чего-то удивительного, новой главы, новых нас.
Это означало начало чего-то Но он поссорился с албанцами до того как смог сделать следующий шаг.
But it must also be obvious that an area
of
peace cannot be
the
final objective,
Но должно быть также очевидно, что создание зоны мира не может быть окончательной целью,
events you have been experiencing,
the
disturbances in your home,
the
blackouts,
События вы испытывает, нарушения в вашем доме, отключений,
Approaching this release,
what I always kept in mind is that either this is the beginning of something new or it’s gonna be my last record.
Приступая к работе над этим релизом, я постоянно думал о том, что он станет либо началом чего-то нового, либо моим последним альбомом.
I have watched tape and during
the
short time you two worked together at CNN, you were onto
something.
You had the beginning of something good.
Я посмотрел записи, и когда вы работали вместе на CNN, у вас было что-то, у вас зарождалось нечто хорошее.
For each
of
us, for example,
the
New Year is not
Для каждого из нас, например,
Новый Год является не только одним из наиболее любимых праздников, но и началом чего-то нового, новыми ожиданиями, планами и т. п.
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