Exordium

//ɛɡˈzɔɹdɪəm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A beginning. formal
  2. 2
    (rhetoric) the introductory section of an oration or discourse wordnet
  3. 3
    The introduction to an essay or discourse.

    "Cicero thinks, in discourses of philosophy, the exordium to be the hardest part: if it be so, I wisely lay hold on the conclusion."

Synonyms

All synonyms
breakthroughexordexordforewordfront matterfrontispiece

Example

More examples

"Cicero thinks, in discourses of philosophy, the exordium to be the hardest part: if it be so, I wisely lay hold on the conclusion."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exordium (“beginning, commencement”), from exōrdior (“I begin, commence”), from ex (“out of, from”) + ōrdior (“I begin”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.