initiation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or process of initiating something.
• noun The process of being initiated.
• noun The condition of being initiated.
• noun A ceremony, ritual, test, or period of instruction with which a new member is admitted to an organization or office or to knowledge.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of initiating or setting on foot; a beginning or starting: as, the initiation of a new enterprise.
• noun Introduction by preliminary instruction or ceremony; initial guidance or admission, especially in some set or formal way, as into knowledge of or participation in anything, membership in an association, or the like.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced
• noun The form or ceremony by which a person is introduced into any society; mode of entrance into an organized body; especially, the rite of admission into a secret society or order.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of initiating, or the process of being initiated or introduced; as, initiation into a society, into business, literature, etc.
• noun The form or ceremony by which a person is introduced into any society; mode of entrance into an organized body; especially, the rite of admission into a secret society or order.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an act that sets in motion some course of events
• noun wisdom as evidenced by the possession of knowledge
• noun the act of starting something for the first time; introducing something new
• noun a formal entry into an organization or position or office