beginner

From Middle English begynner, equivalent to begin +‎ -er. Cognate with West Frisian begjinner (“beginner”), Dutch beginner (“beginner”), Danish nybegynder (“beginner, novice”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɪˈɡɪnə/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /bəˈɡɪnɚ/

beginner (plural beginners)

1. Someone who is just starting at something, or has only recently started.

   I'm new to learning Japanese: I'm just a beginner.

2. Someone who sets something in motion.

   The beginner of the games lit the ceremonial torch.

3. (theater) An actor who is present on stage in the first moments of a play.
   • 1949, Walter Macqueen-Pope, ‎Gaiety: Theatre of Enchantment (page 60)

     On the stage, the beginners for the first piece had taken their places — the chorus were there, scared but determined, and in the wings waited Harlequin, in the person of Charles Lyall […]

• (recent starter): amateur, newbie
• See also Thesaurus:beginner

• beginnerish
• beginner's trap

• beginner in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• beginner in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

• benigner, bergenin

From beginnen +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /bəˈɣɪnər/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: be‧gin‧ner
• Rhymes: -ɪnər

beginner m (plural beginners, diminutive beginnertje n)

1. Someone who is just starting something, or has only recently started (similar to English)

   Hij kan goed schaken voor een beginner. ― He plays chess well for a beginner.

• beginnerscursus