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# begin

**Type:** Word
**Level:** A1
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /bɪˈɡɪn/
**Frequency rank:** 1180

## Meanings
1. To start doing something.
2. To start to happen or exist.
3. To start something or set it in motion.
4. To start in a particular way.

## Examples
- I began playing the piano at the age of five.
- The race begins right over the hill.
- Let us begin before it gets too late.
- The novel begins with a murder.

## Synonyms
- commence
- get
- go
- inchoate
- initiate
- issue
- open
- originate
- start

## Antonyms
- end

## Derived Forms
- beginnable
- beginner
- beginning
- misbegun
- rebegin
- unbegun

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: beginnen
- Root: beginnan
- Root: *biginnan
- Root: *biginnaną

## Etymology
From Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-West Germanic *biginnan, from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from be- + base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan.

## AI Etymology
Begin comes from Middle English beginnen, from Old English beginnan (“to begin”), from Proto-West Germanic *biginnan, from Proto-Germanic *biginnaną (“to begin”), from be- + base verb *ginnaną also found in Old English onginnan.

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