initiatory
adjective, noun
initiatory is an adjective meaning “Of or pertaining to initiation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled I-N-I-T-I-A-T-O-R-Y, and it appears about once in every 15 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does initiatory mean?
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to initiation.
- 2
Inceptive, initial, inaugural or introductory.
noun
- 1
An introductory act or rite.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of initiatory
- more initiatory comparative
- most initiatory superlative
- initiatories plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is initiatory?
Initiatory appears about once in every 15 million words in written English, the 117,098th 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).
Initiatory in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense initial, inaugural:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | initiatique |
| German | initiatorisch |
| Spanish | iniciativo, iniciático |
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 initiatory come from?
From Latin initiāt-, past participial stem of initiō, + -ory. By surface analysis, initiate + -ory.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).