beginning of the end

English

Noun

beginning of the end (uncountable)

1. The point when something starts to end or become worse.
   • 2023 December 11, Fiona Harvey, Patrick Greenfield, Nina Lakhani, Adam Morton, Damian Carrington, quoting Mohamed Adow, “Cop28 draft climate deal criticised as ‘grossly insufficient’ and ‘incoherent’”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa, said: “This text lays the ground for transformational change. This is the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.”

Usage notes

Used with the definite article the.

Related terms

• from beginning to end

Translations

the point when something starts to end or become worse

• Danish: begyndelsen til enden (da) c
• Finnish: lopun alku (fi)
• French: début de la fin (fr) m
• German: Anfang vom Ende m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: begynnelsen på slutten m

  Nynorsk: byrjinga på slutten f

• Polish: początek końca

Further reading

• “beginning of the end”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “the beginning of the end” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “the beginning of the end” (US) / “the beginning of the end” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.