initially

adverb

ini·​tial·​ly i-ˈni-sh(ə-)lē 

: at the beginning : at first

The reason I initially came here was to find work.

It turned out that the situation was not as serious as we had initially believed.

Initially, the symptoms are mild.

Synonyms of initially

• originally

Examples of initially in a Sentence

we initially intended to rebuild our hurricane-damaged home from the ground up

Recent Examples on the Web

He was initially charged with six counts of money laundering, embezzlement, grand theft and misappropriation of public funds in that case. — Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 30 June 2026

Officers learned that the victim who reported the incident initially fled the location, and the three suspects allegedly followed in pursuit. — Lyanne Wang, CBS News, 30 June 2026

Controls imposed by Washington on exports of advanced technology due to national security concerns initially stalled sales of Nvidia's advanced H200 AI chips there. — ABC News, 29 June 2026

Assembly Bill 1821 initially would have changed California’s Public Records Act — a law in place since 1968 that requires government records to be disclosed to the public — to give officials more time to respond to records requests. — Kaitlyn Schallhorn, Oc Register, 29 June 2026

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1628, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for initially

• judicially
• officially
• artificially
• beneficially
• prejudicially
• superficially
• unofficially