n. the first letter of a word (especially a person's name); "he refused to put the initials FRS after his name"

v. mark with one's initials

adj. occurring at the beginning; "took the initial step toward reconciliation"

adj. beginning to develop; "inchoative stages"

adj. at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time; "early morning"; "an early warning"; "early diagnosis"; "an early death"; "took early retirement"; "an early spring"; "early varieties of peas and tomatoes mature before most standard varieties"

adj. badly timed; "an ill-timed intervention"; "you think my intrusion unseasonable"; "an untimely remark"; "it was the wrong moment for a joke"

adj. of first rank or importance or value; direct and immediate rather than secondhand; "primary goals"; "a primary effect"; "primary sources"; "a primary interest"

adj. first or beginning; "the memorable opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth"; "the play's opening scene"

adj. appropriate to the beginning or start of an event; "the starting point"; "hands in the starting position"

adj. serving as an introduction or preface

adj. serving as a base or starting point; "a basic course in Russian"; "basic training for raw recruits"; "a set of basic tools"; "an introductory art course"

adj. relating to or located in the front; "the front lines"; "the front porch"

adj. representing or constituting an original type after which other similar things are patterned; "archetypal patterns"; "she was the prototypal student activist"

adj. preceding all others in time; "the premiere showing"

adj. first in order of birth; "the firstborn child"

adj. used of a person in the first year of an experience (especially in United States high school or college); "a freshman senator"; "freshman year in high school or college"

adj. first in time; "the oldest rocks on the planet"

adj. preceding all others in time or being as first made or performed; "the original inhabitants of the Americas"; "the book still has its original binding"; "restored the house to its original condition"; "the original performance of the opera"; "the original cast"; "retracted his original statement"

adj. first in rank or degree; "an architect of premier rank"; "the prime minister"

adj. used of the first or originating agent; "prime mover"

adj. in the state of development between puberty and maturity; "adolescent boys and girls"

adj. of an organism prior to birth or hatching; "in the embryonic stage"; "embryologic development"

adj. immature of its kind; especially being or characteristic of immature insects in the newly hatched wormlike feeding stage; "larval societies"; "larval crayfishes"; "the larval stage"

adj. (especially of human beings) at the age immediately before puberty; often marked by accelerated growth

adj. of an inactive stage in the development of some insects, between the larval and the pupal stages; "the prepupal stage"

adj. (of animals especially human beings) having arrived at the onset of puberty (the age at which sex glands become functional) but not yet fully mature; "the budding breasts of a pubescent girl and the downy chin of pubescent boy"

adj. of the insects in the chrysalis (cocoon) or post larval stage; "the pupal stage"

adj. not yet fully formed; "unformed still in body and mind"

adj. coming after all others in time or space or degree or being the only one remaining; "the last time I saw Paris"; "the last day of the month"; "had the last word"; "waited until the last minute"; "he raised his voice in a last supreme call"; "the last game of the season"; "down to his last nickel"

adj. being the last or concluding element of a series; "the ultimate sonata of that opus"; "a distinction between the verb and noun senses of `conflict' is that in the verb the stress is on the ultimate (or last) syllable"