Sample Sentences for
initiate
grouped by contextual meaning
(editor-reviewed)

initiate as in:  initiate discussions

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The study concluded that women initiate divorce more frequently than men.
initiate = begin the process of
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    We are encouraging local authorities to initiate long-term emergency planning.
    initiate = start
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    The A.G. will most likely initiate an investigation.  (source)
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    I want him to fold me into his arms again, like he did after the last attack, but he doesn't, and I know better than to initiate it.  (source)
    initiate = begin
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Show 10 more with 8 word variations
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    Nine climbers reached the summit, but seven of them were caught by a storm on the descent, became disoriented, and spent a night in the open at 19,400 feet, initiating a costly, hazardous rescue by the National Park Service.  (source)
    initiating = starting
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    She looked up with the inward stare that made the uninitiated tremble.†  (source)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uninitiated means not and reverses the meaning of initiated. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    Hindley is a detestable substitute — his conduct to Heathcliff is atrocious — H. and I are going to rebel — we took our initiatory step this evening.†  (source)
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    This time, I needed to be the initiator.†  (source)
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    Is he simply working the Lover Boy angle he initiated at the interview?  (source)
    initiated = started
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    Perhaps if he had been sitting between Fifi and Joanna … For the third time the loving cup went round; "I drink to the imminence of His Coming," said Morgana Rothschild, whose turn it happened to be to initiate the circular rite.  (source)
    initiate = begin
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    Many initiations followed, but I was not allowed to Felicia's last one, her asiento.†  (source)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tions", converts a verb into a plural noun that denotes results of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in actions, illustrations, and observations.
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    I mean, we talk occasionally at track practice, but he's ALWAYS the one who initiates it—just ask anyone on the team.  (source)
    initiates = starts
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    Believe me, he is a walking time bomb … capable of initiating a series of events that will profoundly change the world as you know it.  (source)
    initiating = starting
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    To the uninitiated eyes, the words that flowed onto Nabil Awad's social media pages seemed entirely appropriate for the eldest son of a man who was gravely ill.†  (source)
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initiate as in:  initiate into the art of drumming

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That weekend, she was initiated into the art of fly fishing.
initiated = introduced (did it for the first time)
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    The author uses the character to initiate his readers to life and norms within an American high-security prison.
    initiate = introduce
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    For by now, in addition to the workers whom we wanted to initiate into the system [of quickly hiding from the Gestapo], we had three more permanent boarders:  (source)
    initiate = introduce to an activity or area of knowledge
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    Peter initiated me into this long ago.  (source)
    initiated = introduced (to an area of knowledge)
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Show 10 more with 4 word variations
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    And you recall how you plunged with the Founder, the Leader, deep into the black art of escape, guided at first, indeed, initiated, by the seemingly demented one who had learned his craft in slavery.  (source)
    initiated = introduced (to an area of knowledge)
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    Her whole soul was possessed by the fact that a fuller life was opening before her: she was a neophyte about to enter on a higher grade of initiation.  (source)
    initiation = introduction (to an activity or area of knowledge)
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
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    Thus the inhabitants of the South would not be able, like their Northern countrymen, to initiate the slaves gradually into a state of freedom by abolishing slavery; they have no means of perceptibly diminishing the black population, and they would remain unsupported to repress its excesses.  (source)
    initiate = introduce to an activity or area of knowledge
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    Miss Blount, a native Maycombian as yet uninitiated in the mysteries of the Decimal System, appeared at the door hands on hips and announced: "If I hear another sound from this room I'll burn up everybody in it."  (source)
    uninitiated = not introduced (not understanding)
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uninitiated means not and reverses the meaning of initiated. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    New prisoners are largely of two kinds—there are those who for shame, fear or shock wait in fascinated horror to be initiated into the lore of prison life, and there are those who trade on their wretched novelty in order to endear themselves to the community.  (source)
    initiated = introduced (to an area of knowledge)
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    ...and her imagination was fired by the thought that Mr. Gryce, who might have sounded the depths of the most complex self-indulgence, was perhaps actually taking his first journey alone with a pretty woman. It struck her as providential that she should be the instrument of his initiation.  (source)
    initiation = introduction (to an activity or area of knowledge)
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    But mainly, when the uninitiated stood before Ida Paine, they found themselves thinking that the future was preordained.  (source)
    uninitiated = unfamiliar (with her way)
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    She accordingly installed herself in the Madison Avenue house, and Percy, whose sense of duty was not inferior to his mother's, spent all his week days in the handsome Broad Street office where a batch of pale men on small salaries had grown grey in the management of the Gryce estate, and where he was initiated with becoming reverence into every detail of the art of accumulation.  (source)
    initiated = introduced (to an area of knowledge)
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    That more complete teaching would come—Mr. Casaubon would tell her all that: she was looking forward to higher initiation in ideas, as she was looking forward to marriage, and blending her dim conceptions of both.  (source)
    initiation = introduction (to an activity or area of knowledge)
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    The French codes are often difficult of comprehension, but they can be read by every one; nothing, on the other hand, can be more impenetrable to the uninitiated than a legislation founded upon precedents.  (source)
    uninitiated = unfamiliar (without experience or understanding)
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initiate as in:  initiate into the fraternity

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The photo is from the ceremony when she was initiated into the sorority.
initiated = accepted into the group in a special ceremony
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    My mother couldn't attend my Honor Society initiation ceremony.
    initiation = formal acceptance into a group
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    They signed up as "trainees" on the spot. We began to meet every night to initiate them.  (source)
    initiate = a period of instruction and/or testing required to accept someone's membership into an organization
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    I got beat worse than this when I got initiated.  (source)
    initiated = put through a ceremonial test upon acceptance as a member of an organization
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Show 10 more with 6 word variations
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    "Count yourself initiated," she said. "You can't be a true beekeeper without getting stung."  (source)
    initiated = accepted as a member of a group through special procedures
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    ...and we will become members if we complete initiation.  (source)
    initiation = the process of being accepted into an organization
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.
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    Masonic initiations were startling because they were meant to be transformative.  (source)
    initiations = acts of accepting people's membership though a special procedure such as a ceremony and/or period of instruction and/or test
    standard suffix: The suffix "-tions", converts a verb into a plural noun that denotes results of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in actions, illustrations, and observations.
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    Sweeping an arm in our direction, one of the rebels announced, "We are going to initiate all of you by killing these people in front of you."  (source)
    initiate = begin a period of instruction and/or testing required to accept someone's membership into an organization
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    Then he would show his wealth by initiating his sons into the ozo society.  (source)
    initiating = putting through a procedure or ceremony leading to acceptance as a member of a group
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    One of the greatest crimes a man could commit was to unmask an egwugwu in public, or to say or do anything which might reduce its immortal prestige in the eyes of the uninitiated.  (source)
    uninitiated = those not officially accepted as a member of a group
    standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uninitiated means not and reverses the meaning of initiated. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
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    The boys and I forgive your weakness, but you still have to be initiated into our group.  (source)
    initiated = accepted as a member through special procedures
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    We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy.  (source)
    initiation = for admitting new members
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    You've got one of the worst initiations, and there's that whole old-age thing.  (source)
    initiations = acts of accepting people's membership though a special procedure such as a ceremony and/or period of instruction and/or test
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    I have a lot of respect for Hector because he's the guy who initiated me into the Latino Blood.  (source)
    initiated = accepted someone's membership though a special procedure such as a ceremony and/or period of instruction and/or test
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initiate as in:  She is a new initiate.

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Initiates will be formally accepted and presented at the ceremony on Friday.
initiates = new members
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
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    Please fill out the new initiate information form.
    initiate = someone who has formally started in an organization
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    "Scared of the dark, Mar?" the dark-eyed Dauntless-born initiate teases.  (source)
    initiate = potential new member
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    When I graduated from initiate training, Menshikov requested I be assigned to his nome.  (source)
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Show 10 more with 2 word variations
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    The thirty-four-year-old initiate gazed down at the human skull cradled in his palms.  (source)
    initiate = a potential new member of an organization
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    As the night wore on, Puppet, Ragman and Nat had the initiates pile into a pickup truck.  (source)
    initiates = new members of an organization
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    I tried to initiate the link, but it seemed to have been disabled.†  (source)
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    That the ethnic mix of the counselors roughly mirrors the composition of the fifty-two wide-eyed initiates is not lost on Cedric...  (source)
    initiates = potential new members
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    Indeed, it was one of the few to ever initiate the ritual to begin with.†  (source)
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    Probably its regular visitants, like the initiates of freemasonry, wished that there were something a little more tremendous to keep to themselves concerning it; but they were not a closed community, and many decent seniors as well as juniors occasionally turned into the billiard-room to see what was going on.  (source)
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    All Charlie and Walt needed now was the radio call from Tom to initiate.†  (source)
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    Temple initiates used to accompany the pilgrims to the mountains.†  (source)
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    To initiate the Count's course of study, Nina quite sensibly began at the bottom—the basement and its network of corridors and cul-de-sacs.†  (source)
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    Nicolo asked, thinking that they might be initiates in a hilltop religious order.†  (source)
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