What does "inception" mean?

The creation or beginning of something; the establishment.

What is a synonym for "inception"?

Common synonyms include: conception, origin, babyhood, beginning, beginnings, birth.

Inception

//ɪnˈsɛpʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1
The creation or beginning of something; the establishment. countable, uncountable
"From its inception, the agency has been helping people obtain and properly install car seats for children."
2
an event that is a beginning; a first part or stage of subsequent events wordnet
3
A layering, nesting, or recursion of something within itself. countable, uncountable
"Well it's the… Mr. Introspective / I'm a dreamer's dream, a sort of an inception"

Synonyms

All synonyms

conception origin babyhood beginning beginnings birth

Antonyms

All antonyms

end

Example

More examples

"Tatoeba's popularity has been growing exponentially since the day of its inception."

Etymology

Late Middle English, borrowed from Latin inceptiō, from inceptus, perfect passive participle of incipiō (“I begin”). The layering sense derives from the 2010 science fiction film Inception, in which a team of people infiltrate someone’s subconscious mind, proceeding through several layers of dreams with the goal of causing someone to incept an idea.

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