INITIATIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does initiative mean? 

• INITIATIVE (noun)
  The noun INITIATIVE has 2 senses:

1. readiness to embark on bold new ventures

2. the first of a series of actions

  Familiarity information: INITIATIVE used as a noun is rare.

• INITIATIVE (adjective)
  The adjective INITIATIVE has 1 sense:

1. serving to set in motion

  Familiarity information: INITIATIVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INITIATIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Readiness to embark on bold new ventures

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

enterprise; enterprisingness; go-ahead; initiative

Hypernyms ("initiative" is a kind of...):

drive (the trait of being highly motivated)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The first of a series of actions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

first step; initiative; opening; opening move

Hypernyms ("initiative" is a kind of...):

beginning; commencement; start (the act of starting something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "initiative"):

curtain raiser (any preliminary activity)

first base (the initial stage in accomplishing something)

peace initiative (opening move in negotiating a peace treaty)

• INITIATIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serving to set in motion

Synonyms:

first; inaugural; initiative; initiatory; maiden

Context example:

the liner's maiden voyage

Similar:

opening (first or beginning)

Derivation:

initiate (set in motion, start an event or prepare the way for)

initiate (bring into being)

 Context examples 

A national initiative to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables by all Americans to 5 to 9 servings a day.

(Five-A-Day Program, NCI Thesaurus)

Initiative to bring together imaging experts from around the nation to perform multi-institutional clinical trials on diagnostic imaging tools related to cancer.

(Diagnostic Imaging Network, NCI Thesaurus)

The monitoring initiative is Project Providence led by Mamirauá Institute, a research arm of Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communications (MCTIC).

(Amazon jungle animals to be monitored by sensors, Agência Brasil)

An initiative set up to find signs of intelligent life in the universe has detected a series of mysterious radio signals from a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light-years away.

(Mysterious Radio Signals Detected from Deep Space, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

This HIV initiative will create a center for retrovirology research, with emphasis on basic and translational research related to viral evolution and resistance biology.

(HIV Drug Resistance Program, NCI Thesaurus)

This initiative will encourage applications that apply imaging technologies in the assessment of investigational cancer therapeutic agents.

(Development and Application of Imaging in Therapeutic Studies, NCI Thesaurus)

Again, only new or expanded program initiatives should be reported-e.g., an increase in training related only to the increase in stipends should not be reported as an Infrastructure Initiative.

(Infrastructure Activities, NCI Thesaurus)

All his splendid initiative had vanished.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The Center's research emphases include high-priority transdisciplinary initiatives, minority health and health disparities, and systems biomedicine initiatives.

(Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, NCI Thesaurus)

Provides externalization and support of LexGrid-based terminology software (services, persistence, tooling) developed for the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) initiative.

(LexBIG, NCI Thesaurus)