ORIGIN Definition & Usage Examples | Dictionary.com

origin

[ awr-i-jin, or- ]
See synonyms for: originorigins on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. something from which anything arises or is derived; source; fountainhead: to follow a stream to its origin.

  2. rise or derivation from a particular source: the origin of a word.

  1. the first stage of existence; beginning: the origin of Quakerism in America.

  2. ancestry; parentage; extraction: to be of Scottish origin.

  3. Anatomy.

    • the point of derivation.

    • the more fixed portion of a muscle.

  4. Mathematics.

    • the point in a Cartesian coordinate system where the axes intersect.

    • Also called pole. the point from which rays designating specific angles originate and are measured from in a polar coordinate system with no axes.

Origin of origin

1
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin orīgin-, stem of orīgō “beginning, source, lineage,” from or(īrī) “to rise” (cf. orient) + -īgō, noun suffix

Other words for origin

Opposites for origin

Words Nearby origin

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use origin in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for origin

origin

/ (ˈɒrɪdʒɪn) /


noun
  1. a primary source; derivation

  2. the beginning of something; first stage or part

  1. (often plural) ancestry or parentage; birth; extraction

  2. anatomy

    • 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

  3. maths

    • the point of intersection of coordinate axes or planes

    • the point whose coordinates are all zero: See also pole 2 (def. 8)

  4. commerce the country from which a commodity or product originates: shipment from origin

Origin of origin

1
C16: from French origine, from Latin orīgō beginning, birth, from orīrī to rise, spring from

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for origin

origin

[ ôrə-jĭn ]


  1. The point at which the axes of a Cartesian coordinate system intersect. The coordinates of the origin are (0,0) in two dimensions and (0,0,0) in three dimensions.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.