maiden

1. 1.

   serving to set in motion

   “the magazine's inaugural issue”

   “the initiative phase in the negotiations”

   “an initiatory step toward a treaty”

   “his first (or maiden) speech in Congress”

   “the liner's maiden voyage”

   Synonymsinauguralinitiativeinitiatoryfirst

   Similaropening

Other forms of maiden

plural

maidens·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about maiden

What does maiden mean?

maiden means "an unmarried girl (especially a virgin)". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in maiden?

maiden has 2 syllables: mai-den. The stress falls on "mai". In IPA it is /ˈmeɪdən/.

What is another word for maiden?

Close synonyms include maid, maiden over, inaugural, initiative, initiatory. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is maiden a common word?

maiden is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.