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

In a move first reported by The Athletic, Philadelphia initially reached out to Paul when Gansey and general manager Jameer Nelson spun the trade that brought Jaylen Brown to the Sixers from the Boston Celtics. — Tony Jones, New York Times, 14 July 2026

Officers were initially called for reports of shots fired in the area and arrived to find evidence of a shooting. — Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 14 July 2026

Captured on a home security camera and initially provided to Storyful, the footage shows the man, identified as Cortlandt Koerwitz, using bear spray to deter the approaching animal. — David Caraccio, Sacbee.com, 13 July 2026

Josh Brown, Bravo’s vp, current production, told The Hollywood Reporter after the conclusion of the three-part reunion that the cast would be locked by end of June, with season 11 initially set to starting filming early July. — Carly Thomas, HollywoodReporter, 13 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1628, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for initially

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