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say it: stahrt
start is a verb and noun meaning "take the first step or steps in carrying out an action". It is pronounced /ˈstɑɹt/ — stahrt. It carries 22 recorded senses.
set in motion, cause to start
“The U.S. started a war in the Middle East”
“The Iraqis began hostilities”
“begin a new chapter in your life”
get off the ground
“Who started this company?”
“We embarked on an exciting enterprise”
“I start my day with a good breakfast”
“We began the new semester”
“The afternoon session begins at 4 PM”
“The blood shed started when the partisans launched a surprise attack”
begin or set in motion
“I start at eight in the morning”
“Ready, set, go!”
begin work or acting in a certain capacity, office or job
“Take up a position”
“start a new job”
the time at which something is supposed to begin
“they got an early start”
“she knew from the get-go that he was the man for her”
a sudden involuntary movement
“he awoke with a start”
the act of starting something
“he was responsible for the beginning of negotiations”
a line indicating the location of the start of a race or a game
a signal to begin (as in a race)
“the starting signal was a green light”
“the runners awaited the start”
the advantage gained by beginning early (as in a race)
“with an hour's start he will be hard to catch”
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.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for start come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.