start

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See also: Start, START, and štart

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English stert, from the verb sterten (“to start, startle”). See below.

Noun

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start (plural starts)

  1. The beginning of an activity.
    The movie was entertaining from start to finish.
  2. A sudden involuntary movement.
    He woke with a start.
  3. The beginning point of a race, a board game, etc.
    Captured pieces are returned to the start of the board.
  4. An appearance in a sports game, horserace, etc., from the beginning of the event.
    Jones has been a substitute before, but made his first start for the team last Sunday.
    • 2011 February 12, Ian Hughes, “Arsenal 2 - 0 Wolverhampton”, in BBC‎[1]:
      Wilshere, who made his first start for England in the midweek friendly win over Denmark, raced into the penalty area and chose to cross rather than shoot - one of the very few poor selections he made in the match.
  5. (horticulture) A young plant germinated in a pot to be transplanted later.
    • 2009, Liz Primeau, Steven A. Frowine, Gardening Basics For Canadians For Dummies:
      You generally see nursery starts at garden centres in mid to late spring. Small annual plants are generally sold in four-packs or larger packs, with each cell holding a single young plant.
  6. An initial advantage over somebody else; a head start.
    to get, or have, the start
  7. (UK, slang, archaic) A happening or proceeding.
    • 1887, Hawley Smart, A False Start, volume 2, page 69:
      “It's a rum start, old John Madingley's coming down to Tunnleton,” said Grafton, one evening in the smoking-room; […]
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → German: Start
  • → Persian: استارت (estârt)
Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 2

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From Middle English sterten (“to leap up suddenly, rush out”), from Old English styrtan (“to leap up, start”), from Proto-West Germanic *sturtijan (“to startle, move, set in motion”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ter- (“to be stiff”). Cognate with Old Frisian stirta (“to fall down, tumble”), Middle Dutch sterten (“to rush, fall, collapse”) (Dutch storten), Old High German sturzen (“to hurl, plunge, turn upside down”) (German stürzen), Old High German sterzan (“to be stiff, protrude”). More at stare.

Verb

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start (third-person singular simple present starts, present participle starting, simple past and past participle started)

  1. (transitive) To begin, commence, initiate.
    1. To set in motion.
      to start a stream of water;   to start a rumour;   to start a business
      • April 2, 1716, Joseph Addison, Freeholder No. 30
        I was some years ago engaged in conversation with a fashionable French Abbe, upon a subject which the people of that kingdom love to start in discourse.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
        In the autumn there was a row at some cement works about the unskilled labour men. A union had just been started for them and all but a few joined. One of these blacklegs was laid for by a picket and knocked out of time.
    2. To begin.
      • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:
        Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. Charging school fees is illegal, and so is sorting pupils into ability groups by streaming or setting.
    4. To ready the operation of a vehicle or machine.
      to start the engine
    5. To put or raise (a question, an objection); to put forward (a subject for discussion).
    6. To bring onto being or into view; to originate; to invent.
      • 1674, William Temple, letter to The Countess of Essex:
        Sensual men agree in the pursuit of every pleasure they can start.
  2. (intransitive) To begin an activity.
    The rain started at 9:00.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’  […] .” So I started to back away again into the bushes. But I hadn't backed more'n a couple of yards when I see something so amazing that I couldn't help scooching down behind the bayberries and looking at it.
  3. (intransitive) To have its origin (at), begin.
    The speed limit is 50 km/h, starting at the edge of town.
    The blue line starts one foot away from the wall.
  4. To startle or be startled; to move or be moved suddenly.
    1. (intransitive) To jerk suddenly in surprise.
      • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v]:
        But if he start,
        It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
      • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 257, column 2:
        I could a Tale vnfold, vvhoſe lighteſt vvord
        VVould harrovv vp thy ſoule, freeze thy young blood,
        Make thy tvvo eyes like Starres, ſtart from their Spheres,
        Thy knotty and combined locks to part,
        And each particular haire to ſtand an end,
        Like Quilles vpon the fretfull Porpentine: […]
      • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
        I start as from some dreadful dream.
      • 1725, Isaac Watts, Logick: Or, The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry after Truth, […], 2nd edition, London: […] John Clark and Richard Hett, […], Emanuel Matthews, […], and Richard Ford, […], published 1726, →OCLC:
        Keep your soul to the work when it is ready to start aside.
      • 1855, Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, section XXXI:
        [...] The tempest's mocking elf
        Points to the shipman thus the unseen shelf
        He strikes on, only when the timbers start.
      • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter VIII, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC, page 139:
        Suddenly his eye fell on the screen that he had placed in front of the portrait, and he started.
    2. (intransitive) To awaken suddenly.
      • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter IV, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume I, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 100:
        I started from my sleep with horror; a cold dew covered my forehead, my teeth chattered, and every limb became convulsed; [...]
    3. (transitive) To disturb and cause to move suddenly; to startle; to alarm; to rouse; to cause to flee or fly.
      The hounds started a fox.
    4. (intransitive) To flinch or draw back.
      • 1836, Elizur Wright, Quarterly Anti-slavery Magazine, volume 2, page 162:
        Physical poison would make them start from arsenicked bread; shall not the moral poison which is in it, make them start more promptly still from slave produce?
    5. (transitive) To move suddenly from its place or position; to displace or loosen; to dislocate.
      to start a bone;   the storm started the bolts in the vessel
      • 1676, Richard Wiseman, Severall Chirurgicall Treatises, London: […] E. Flesher and J. Macock, for R[ichard] Royston […], and B[enjamin] Took, […], →OCLC:
        One, by a fall in wrestling, started the end of the clavicle from the sternon.
  5. (intransitive) To break away, to come loose.
    • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 76:
      [...] we could, with the greateſt eaſe, as well as clearneſs, ſee all objects, (ourſelves unſeen) only by applying our eyes cloſe to the crevice, where the moulding of a pannel had warp'd, or ſtarted a little on the other ſide.
  6. (transitive, sports) To put into play.
    • 2010, Brian Glanville, The Story of the World Cup: The Essential Companion to South Africa 2010, London: Faber and Faber, →ISBN, page 361:
      The charge against Zagallo then is not so much that he started Ronaldo, but that when it should surely have been clear that the player was in no fit state to take part he kept him on.
    • 2024 May 6, Sid Lowe, “Portu’s brilliant burst seals Girona’s top-four fairytale in the perfect way”, in The Guardian‎[2], →ISSN:
      “Look at Portu,” Michel insisted, “he scores goals and I never start him. He says: ‘You’re sinking me, but OK, I’ll just go out and score again.’”
  7. (transitive, nautical) To pour out; to empty; to tap and begin drawing from.
    to start a water cask
  8. (intransitive, euphemistic) To start one's periods (menstruation).
    Have you started yet?
Usage notes
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Antonyms
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Derived terms
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Descendants
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Translations
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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

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start (plural starts)

  1. An instance of starting.
Derived terms
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See also

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See also the terms derived from starting.

Etymology 3

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From Middle English stert, start (“tail, handle, projection”), from Old English steort, from Proto-West Germanic *stert, from Proto-Germanic *stertaz (“tail”). Cognate with Scots start, stairt (“side-post, shaft, upright post”), Dutch staart (“tail”), German Sterz (“tail, handle”), Swedish stjärt (“tail, arse”).

Noun

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start (plural starts)

  1. A projection or protrusion; that which pokes out.
  2. A handle, especially that of a plough.
  3. The curved or inclined front and bottom of a water wheel bucket.
    • 1845, Captain R.E. Crawley, Description of a Water-Course, Wharf, and Water-Wheel, erected at Waltham Abbey, Essex […] :
      The fall of water is 6 feet, and the radius of the curve is 8 feet, from the centre of the water-wheel to the extreme point of the start.
  4. The arm, or level, of a gin, drawn around by a horse.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “start”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Derived terms
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Etymology 4

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Variant of stark.[1]

Adverb

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start (comparative more start, superlative most start)

  1. (dialectal, archaic) Completely, utterly.
    • 1828 August 22, “Militia System”, in The New England Farmer, volume VII, Boston, M.A.: John B. Russell, published 1829, page 40, column 1:
      Col.—The age has no sense—the people are start mad—as mad as a March mare. We should have fine times, indeed if our laws did'nt compel the poor people to protect the property of the rich.

References

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  1. ^ “start, adv.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

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Breton

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Adjective

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start

  1. firm, strong
  2. difficult

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • Herve Ar Bihan, Colloquial Breton, pages 16 and 268: define "start" as "hard, difficult, firm"

Crimean Tatar

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Noun

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start

  1. start

Declension

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Declension of start
nominative start
genitive startnıñ
dative startqa
accusative startnı
locative startta
ablative starttan

References

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  • Mirjejev, V. A., Usejinov, S. M. (2002) Ukrajinsʹko-krymsʹkotatarsʹkyj slovnyk [Ukrainian – Crimean Tatar Dictionary]‎[3], Simferopol: Dolya, →ISBN

Czech

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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start m inan

  1. start (beginning point of a race)

Declension

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Declension of start (hard masculine inanimate)
singular plural
nominative start starty
genitive startu startů
dative startu startům
accusative start starty
vocative starte starty
locative startu startech
instrumental startem starty
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See also

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Further reading

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  • “start”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
  • “start”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

Danish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Noun

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start c (singular definite starten, plural indefinite starter)

  1. start

Inflection

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Declension of start
common
gender 		Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative start starten starter starterne
genitive starts startens starters starternes

Verb

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start

  1. imperative of starte

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from English start.

Noun

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start m (plural starts, diminutive startje n)

  1. start
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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start

  1. inflection of starten:
    1. first/second/third-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

German

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Verb

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start

  1. singular imperative of starten

Maltese

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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start

  1. first/second-person singular perfect of satar

Norwegian Bokmål

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from English start.

Noun

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start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural starter, definite plural startene)

  1. a start
    fra start til mål ― from start to finish
Derived terms
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Etymology 2

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Verb

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start

  1. imperative of starte

References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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start m (definite singular starten, indefinite plural startar, definite plural startane)

  1. a start (beginning)

Verb

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start

  1. imperative of starta

Derived terms

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References

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Polish

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Polish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pl

Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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start m inan

  1. (sports) start (beginning of a race)
  2. (aviation) takeoff
    Z niecierpliwością czekałam na start samolotu do Paryża.
    I was impatiently waiting for the plane to Paris to take off/for its take-off.
  3. participation
    Większość kibiców ucieszyła się, że zdecydował się on na start w zawodach.
    Most fans were happy to hear that he had decided to take part in the competition.

Declension

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Declension of start
singular plural
nominative start starty
genitive startu startów
dative startowi startom
accusative start starty
instrumental startem startami
locative starcie startach
vocative starcie starty

Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • start in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • start in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from English start.

Noun

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start m (plural starts)

  1. Alternative form of estarte

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Noun

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start n (plural starturi)

  1. start (of a race)

Declension

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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative start startul starturi starturile
genitive-dative start startului starturi starturilor
vocative startule starturilor

Swedish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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start c

  1. a start; a beginning (of a race)
  2. the starting (of an engine)

Declension

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Declension of start
nominative genitive
singular indefinite start starts
definite starten startens
plural indefinite starter starters
definite starterna starternas

Derived terms

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References

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Anagrams

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Turkish

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Etymology

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Borrowed from English start.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): [staɾt]
  • Hyphenation: start

Noun

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start (definite accusative startı, plural startlar)

  1. start

Usage notes

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Turkish phonotactics disallows complex syllable onsets, thus speakers may epenthesize a vowel after the first consonant, pronouncing it as [sɯtaɾt].

Declension

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Inflection
Nominative start
Definite accusative startı
Singular Plural
Nominative start startlar
Definite accusative startı startları
Dative starta startlara
Locative startta startlarda
Ablative starttan startlardan
Genitive startın startların
Possessive forms
Nominative
Singular Plural
1st singular startım startlarım
2nd singular startın startların
3rd singular startı startları
1st plural startımız startlarımız
2nd plural startınız startlarınız
3rd plural startları startları
Definite accusative
Singular Plural
1st singular startımı startlarımı
2nd singular startını startlarını
3rd singular startını startlarını
1st plural startımızı startlarımızı
2nd plural startınızı startlarınızı
3rd plural startlarını startlarını
Dative
Singular Plural
1st singular startıma startlarıma
2nd singular startına startlarına
3rd singular startına startlarına
1st plural startımıza startlarımıza
2nd plural startınıza startlarınıza
3rd plural startlarına startlarına
Locative
Singular Plural
1st singular startımda startlarımda
2nd singular startında startlarında
3rd singular startında startlarında
1st plural startımızda startlarımızda
2nd plural startınızda startlarınızda
3rd plural startlarında startlarında
Ablative
Singular Plural
1st singular startımdan startlarımdan
2nd singular startından startlarından
3rd singular startından startlarından
1st plural startımızdan startlarımızdan
2nd plural startınızdan startlarınızdan
3rd plural startlarından startlarından
Genitive
Singular Plural
1st singular startımın startlarımın
2nd singular startının startlarının
3rd singular startının startlarının
1st plural startımızın startlarımızın
2nd plural startınızın startlarınızın
3rd plural startlarının startlarının

Antonyms

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