[noun] the first part or section of something; "`It was a dark and stormy night' is a hackneyed beginning for a story"
[noun] 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" Synonyms:origin, root, rootage, source
[noun] the act of starting something; "he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations" Synonyms:start, commencement
[adjective] serving to begin; "the beginning canto of the poem"; "the first verse" Synonyms:first