Definitions

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

  • adverb From the beginning.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun From the beginning.

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

  • adverb sciences Calculated from first principles, i.e. from basic laws without any further additional assumptions.
  • adverb Taken with no prior qualifications.

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

  • adverb at the beginning

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ab initiō : ab, from + initiō, ablative of initium, beginning.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ab ("from") + initiō, ablative singular of initium ("beginning").

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Examples

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Comments

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  • JM notes there are some folk who look backwards ‘ab initio’

    August 9, 2009