Incipient definitions

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INCIP'IENT, a. [L. incipiens,incipio; in and capio, to take.]
Beginning; commencing; as the incipient stage of a fever; incipient light or day.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: only partly in existence; imperfectly formed; "incipient civil disorder"; "an incipient tumor"; "a vague inchoate idea" [syn: incipient, inchoate]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin incipient-, incipiens, present participle of incipere to begin — more at inception Date: 1669 beginning to come into being or to become apparent <an incipient solar system> <evidence of incipient racial tension> • incipiently adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 beginning. 2 in an initial stage. Derivatives: incipience n. incipiency n. incipiently adv. Etymology: L incipere incipient- (as INCEPT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Incipient In*cip"i*ent, a. [L. incipiens, p. pr. of incipere to begin. See Inception.] Beginning to be, or to show itself; commencing; initial; as, the incipient stage of a fever; incipient light of day. -- In*cip"i*ent*ly, adv.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

An incipient situation or quality is one that is starting to happen or develop. (FORMAL) ...an incipient economic recovery... = impending ADJ: ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Beginning, commencing, inchoate.

Moby Thesaurus

Lilliputian, Tom Thumb, abecedarian, aboriginal, antenatal, autochthonous, beginning, budding, creative, dumpy, dwarf, dwarfed, dwarfish, elemental, elementary, elfin, embryonic, fetal, formative, foundational, fundamental, gestatory, in embryo, in its infancy, in the bud, inaugural, inceptive, inchoate, inchoative, incunabular, infant, infantile, initial, initiative, initiatory, introductory, inventive, meager, midget, nanoid, nascent, natal, original, parturient, postnatal, pregnant, prenatal, primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive, primogenial, procreative, pygmy, rudimental, rudimentary, runty, scraggy, scrubby, shriveled, shrunk, shrunken, squat, stunted, undersize, undersized, ur, wizened