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.
Examples of initially in a Sentence
we initially intended to rebuild our hurricane-damaged home from the ground up
Recent Examples on the Web
Stocks initially got off to a sluggish start to the day amid uncertainty about the Strait of Hormuz's openness .
—
Jeff Marks, CNBC, 9 Apr. 2026
Pressure to meet those expectations sometimes resulted in staff falsely recording group notes, said Hager and Beckie Rose-Bowman, who was initially a client at ARC and later director of Riverplace, a 120-bed ARC facility in Pikeville, which has since closed.
—Alex Acquisto, CNN Money, 9 Apr. 2026
As any die-hard fan knows, the iconic boy band did not initially include Lance Bass.
—Joyce Eng, Entertainment Weekly, 9 Apr. 2026
Heuermann initially pleaded not guilty following his 2023 arrest.
—Rafi Schwartz, TheWeek, 9 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for initially
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Jeff Marks, CNBC, 9 Apr. 2026
Pressure to meet those expectations sometimes resulted in staff falsely recording group notes, said Hager and Beckie Rose-Bowman, who was initially a client at ARC and later director of Riverplace, a 120-bed ARC facility in Pikeville, which has since closed.
—Alex Acquisto, CNN Money, 9 Apr. 2026
As any die-hard fan knows, the iconic boy band did not initially include Lance Bass.
—Joyce Eng, Entertainment Weekly, 9 Apr. 2026
Heuermann initially pleaded not guilty following his 2023 arrest.
—Rafi Schwartz, TheWeek, 9 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for initially
Cite this Entry
“Initially.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/initially. Accessed 14 Apr. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
