beginning
be·gin·ning/bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/noun, adjective, verb
beginning is spelled B-E-G-I-N-N-I-N-G, 3 syllables: be·gin·ning. The wrong spelling people search most is begining: about 1,210 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Beginning is a noun meaning “The act of doing that which begins anything; commencement of an action, state, or space of time; entrance…”. The plural of beginning is beginnings.
How many letters and syllables are in beginning?
| Letters | 9: B-E-G-I-N-N-I-N-G |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: be·gin·ning |
| In writing | 100 times per million words; the 1,076th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 5; the most searched, begining, about 1,210 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell beginning?
Beginning is spelled B-E-G-I-N-N-I-N-G. 5 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for beginning in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is beginning?
Beginning appears 100 times per million words in written English, the 1,076th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce beginning?
- US /bɪˈɡɪn.ɪŋ/
- /ˈbɪ.ɡɪ.nɪŋɡ/
Beginning has 3 syllables, split be·gin·ning in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-beginning.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-beginning.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of beginning
- beginnings plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does beginning mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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
That which is begun; a rudiment or element.
- 3
That which begins or originates something; the source or first cause.
What was the beginning of the dispute?
- 4
The initial portion of some extended thing.
The author describes the main character’s youth at the beginning of the story.
adjective
- 1
informalBeing the first portion of some extended thing.
in the beginning paragraph of the chapter
verb
- 1
present participle and gerund of begin
He is beginning to read a new book.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate beginning?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of beginning: beg.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Beginning in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | début, commencement , ébauche |
| German | Anfang, Beginn , Angefangene, Begonnene |
| Portuguese | começo, início, princípio , originador |
| Spanish | comienzo, comenzamiento, principio, inicio, empiece, empiezo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does beginning come from?
From Middle English biginning, beginninge, beginnunge, equivalent to begin + -ing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).