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Dictionary Entries (16 more entries. View all »)
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source
or·i·gin    Audio Help   [awr-i-jin, or-] Pronunciation Key
–noun
1.something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin.
2.rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word.
3.the first stage of existence; beginning: the origin of Quakerism in America.
4.ancestry; parentage; extraction: to be of Scottish origin.
5.Anatomy.
a.the point of derivation.
b.the more fixed portion of a muscle.
6.Mathematics.
a.the point in a Cartesian coordinate system where the axes intersect.
b.Also called pole. the point from which rays designating specific angles originate in a polar coordinate system with no axes.
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME < L orīgin- (s. of orīgō) beginning, source, lineage, deriv. of orīrī to rise; cf. orient]

—Synonyms 1. root, foundation. 4. birth, lineage, descent.
—Antonyms 1. destination, end.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Thesaurus Entries
  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus - Cite This Source
Main Entry:  origin
Part of Speech:  noun
Definition:  A point of origination.
Synonyms:  beginning, derivation, fount, fountain, fountainhead, mother, parent, provenance, provenience, root, rootstock, source, spring, well
Source:  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition
by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary.
Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus - Cite This Source
Main Entry:  ancestry
Part of Speech:  noun
Definition:  One's ancestors or their character or one's ancestral derivation.
Synonyms:  birth, blood, bloodline, descent, extraction, family, genealogy, line, lineage, parentage, pedigree, seed, stock
Source:  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition
by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary.
Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus - Cite This Source
Main Entry:  birth
Part of Speech:  noun
Definition:  The initial stage of a developmental process.
Synonyms:  beginning, commencement, dawn, genesis, inception, nascence, nascency, onset, opening, outset, spring, start
Source:  Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition
by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary.
Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.


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