initially

initially

English

Etymology

initial +‎ -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪˈnɪʃəli/, /ɪˈnɪʃli/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

Adverb

initially (not comparable)

1. At the beginning.
   • 2013 June 7, Ed Pilkington, “‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 6:

     In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.

   Initially, I found city life incredibly difficult, but now I'm used to it.

Synonyms

• at first; see also Thesaurus:initially

Antonyms

• finally; see also Thesaurus:finally

Translations

at the beginning

Bashkir: башта (başta) Bulgarian: първоначално (bg) (pǎrvonačalno), отначало (bg) (otnačalo) Chinese: Mandarin: 起初 (zh) (qǐchū), 最初 (zh) (zuìchū) Dutch: aanvankelijk (nl) Esperanto: komence Finnish: aluksi (fi), alun perin (fi) French: initialement (fr), au début, au commencement Galician: inicialmente German: zunächst (de), anfangs (de) Greek: Ancient: τὴν ἀρχὴν (tḕn arkhḕn) Japanese: 始めに (ja) (hajime ni) Korean: 처음에 (cheo'eume) Occitan: inicialament Polish: początkowo (pl) Portuguese: inicialmente (pt) Russian: первонача́льно (ru) (pervonačálʹno), изнача́льно (ru) (iznačálʹno), снача́ла (ru) (snačála), внача́ле (ru) (vnačále) Scottish Gaelic: an toiseach, sa chiad dol a-mach Spanish: inicialmente, al principio, en un principio, al comienzo, al inicio Swahili: mwanzo (sw) Swedish: inledningsvis (sv) Yakut: бастаан (bastaan)