Library / English Dictionary

INITIAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: initialled    , initialling   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The first letter of a word (especially a person's name)

Example:

he refused to put the initials FRS after his name

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("initial" is a kind of...):

alphabetic character; letter; letter of the alphabet (the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech)

Derivation:

initial (mark with one's initials)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Occurring at the beginning

Example:

took the initial step toward reconciliation

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

first (preceding all others in time or space or degree)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mark with one's initials

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "initial" is one way to...):

sign (be engaged by a written agreement)

"Initial" entails doing...:

approve; O.K.; okay; sanction (give sanction to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

initial (the first letter of a word (especially a person's name))

Credits

 Context examples: 

Initial ideas are that the IPR helps mark damaged proteins inside cells.

(New Pathway for Handling Stress Discovered, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Out of 197 initial planet candidates, scientists have confirmed 104 planets outside our solar system.

(Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets During Its K2 Mission, NASA)

The mice that formed CCMs also had abscesses in their spleens, which meant that the bacteria had entered the bloodstream from the initial abscess site.

(Researchers connect brain blood vessel lesions to intestinal bacteria, NIH)

In August 2015, NIH surprisingly ended the trial early after initial results showed that 3.3 years of intensive treatment significantly reduced the rates of death and cardiovascular disease.

(Intensive blood pressure control may slow age-related brain damage, National Institutes of Health)

There still remained an inch of candle: I now took out my letter; the seal was an initial F.; I broke it; the contents were brief.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The image was taken during Spitzer's initial "cold" mission.

(The Giant Galaxy Around the Giant Black Hole, NASA)

The initial chronic phase of CML (CML-CP) is characterized by a massive expansion of the granulocytic-cell series.

(Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

A feedback is an enhancement (positive feedback) or a damping (negative feedback) of an initial change, in this case in the climate system.

(Climatic feedback mechanisms, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

It may be the initial manifestation of seizures associated with temporal lobe epilepsy.

(Pharyngeal Dysesthesia, NCI Thesaurus)

NOTE(S): If the person does not have a middle initial, the initials will only be two characters.

(Person Initials, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)