beginning

the event consisting of the start of something; "the beginning of the war"

the time at which something is supposed to begin; "they got an early start"; "she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her"

the first part or section of something; "`It was a dark and stormy night' is a hackneyed beginning for a story"

the place where something begins, where it springs into being; "the Italian beginning of the Renaissance"; "Jupiter was the origin of the radiation"; "Pittsburgh is the source of the Ohio River"; "communism's Russian root"

the act of starting something; "he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations"

serving to begin; "the beginning canto of the poem"; "the first verse"