- a primary source; derivation
- the beginning of something; first stage or part
- (often plural) ancestry or parentage; birth; extraction
- the end of a muscle, opposite its point of insertion
- the beginning of a nerve or blood vessel or the site where it first starts to branch out
- the point of intersection of coordinate axes or planes
- the point whose coordinates are all zero
- the country from which a commodity or product originates: shipment from origin
WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
or•i•gin /ˈɔrɪdʒɪn, ˈɑr-/USA pronunciation
n.
WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026- [countable* usually: singular] a source from which anything arises or comes.
- the first years or stage of existence:[countable* often: plural]a woman of mysterious origins.
- descent:[uncountable]was clearly of Scandinavian origin.
or•i•gin
(ôr′i jin, or′-),USA pronunciation n.
- something from which anything arises or is derived;
source;
fountainhead:to follow a stream to its origin. - rise or derivation from a particular source:the origin of a word.
- the first stage of existence;
beginning:the origin of Quakerism in America. - ancestry;
parentage;
extraction:to be of Scottish origin. - Anatomy
- the point of derivation.
- the more fixed portion of a muscle.
- Mathematics
- the point in a Cartesian coordinate system where the axes intersect.
- Also called pole. the point from which rays designating specific angles originate in a polar coordinate system with no axes.
- Latin orīgin- (stem of orīgō) beginning, source, lineage, derivative of orīrī to rise; compare orient
- Middle English 1350–1400
- 1. root, foundation. 4. birth, lineage, descent.
- 1. destination, end.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
origin /ˈɒrɪdʒɪn/ n
(Advertisement)
'origin' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
abalone
- abdomen
- accent
- ad-
- afflatus
- Africana
- agog
- Albion
- aleatory
- Aleut
- al-Farabi
- algae
- almuce
- alpha
- amah
- amalgam
- Amazon
- ambuscade
- ambush
- Amish
- amulet
- analogous
- andiron
- angary
- Anglo
- animé
- antenna
- antimony
- ap
- April
- aquilegia
- arbiter
- argol
- argot
- arnica
- aroint thee
- array
- artillery
- as
- ascribe
- askance
- asparagus
- asphodel
- asquint
- assign
- asthma
- astrophysics
- asymptote
- aubergine
- authentic
