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initial

[ih-nish-uhl] / ɪˈnɪʃ əl /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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The sale by the GEO Group, a Florida-based government contractor, follows an initial $1.5-billion sale over the summer of two other California detention facilities by GEO’s competitor, CoreCivic of Tennessee.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026

Zhang is expected to make her initial appearance in federal court on Monday.

From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026

As an initial matter, we don’t actually know what “this young woman has been forced to endure.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Roberts said he was delighted that the initial highways work could now start on site thanks to the persistence and partnership of all involved.

From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026

Because the least valued oil leases were offered first, the barons usually lingered in the back, leaving the initial bidding to upstarts.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann

And the contestant she ended up with shares the same initials as Mortensen and both men are from Idaho.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

She wears a pearl-trimmed French hood; a dark, square-necked gown with white lace, gold and pearl trim; a pearl necklace; and, with one exception, a pearl necklace with the pendant initials “AB” or “B.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026

After getting fired, Eatherly pivoted, creating his own remodeling business, named after his initials, DLE Contracting.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026

Ocasio-Cortez, widely known by her initials AOC, burst onto the national political scene with an upset congressional victory in 2018 and rapidly became a leading voice of the Democratic Party's left wing.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

For generations, all the Shareefs had carved their initials into that tree, going back to the ancestors who first built the farm.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

During his summation, Steinglass pointed to a document that had been initialed by Trump and called it “explicit” proof of his knowing that his executives were tinkering with expenses to reduce their tax liabilities.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 6, 2022

He testified to purchasing a car for $3,500 and initialed a blank sales agreement.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2022

A small auction house in Massachusetts offered it for sale as a “an unidentified gentleman, initialed I.L., and dated 1652,” with an estimate of $200 to $300.

From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2022

The poems — some long, some short, sometimes with crossed-out words and corrections — were each dated and signed or initialed “C.B.”

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 30, 2022

Domingo approached the window, whispered: “I remind you only of this: when you get this jeweled initialed sword, claim it as your own. Tell no one of my involvement.”

From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman

The US State Department said technical teams had initialled the draft text on Wednesday, ahead of a formal signing ceremony next Friday to be witnessed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2025

Medinsky said Russia had made a second major de-escalatory step by agreeing to a possible meeting of the two countries’ presidents at the same moment that a peace agreement was initialled.

From Reuters ● Mar. 29, 2022

Agreements would also be initialled with Georgia and Moldova.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2013

President Mohamed Mursi's government initialled an IMF deal in November but postponed ratification in December due to unrest ignited by a political row over the extent of Mursi's powers.

From Reuters ● Apr. 3, 2013

“That is correct, Monsieur. My handkerchiefs are always initialled in the Russian characters. H is N in Russian.”

From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie

Sometimes, I think back to initialing the bark, or nailing a plank of wood into the trunk, or breaking a branch by accident.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 19, 2023

He was initialing ballots to be handed out to voters, a standard procedure mandated by state law, according to the county clerk.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 11, 2022

Scott McDonell, the Dane County clerk, said the man is a poll worker, and the video shows him initialing ballots before they were handed out to voters.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 11, 2022

But he turned out to be a poll worker in Wisconsin conducting the standard procedure of initialing ballots for voters.

From New York Times ● Nov. 9, 2022

I shall be glad to have it for initialing in not more than five minutes from now.”

From Mystery at Geneva An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings by Dame Rose Macaulay

Lawless had acted on an impulse in initialling her programme as he had done—a recurrence, even though slight, of the old midsummer madness.

From Grit Lawless by F.E. Mills Young

He was very preoccupied, pinning up cheques and initialling some important customer's paying-in book.

From Somehow Good by William Frend De Morgan

This is the Epeira’s trade-mark, the flourish of an artist initialling his creation. 

From The Life of the Spider by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

This is the Epeira's trade-mark, the flourish of an artist initialling his creation.

From The Wonders of Instinct Chapters in the Psychology of Insects by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos

The earlier taste still ruled in initialling and border decorations; but little flowers were added by degrees to the thorn-leaf pattern, and birds, sometimes angels, introduced.

From The Development of the Feeling for Nature in the Middle Ages and Modern Times by Alfred Biese




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