Incipient

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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.
     [1913 Webster]



From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

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

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  69 Moby Thesaurus words for "incipient":
     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