How to Use initiate in a Sentence

initiate

1 of 3 verb
  • Doctors have initiated a series of tests to determine the cause of the problem.
  • The new recruits will be initiated tomorrow night.
  • He was initiated into a secret society.
  • The company initiated judicial proceedings against them.
  • Push your hips back to initiate the squat.
    — Greg Presto, Outside, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Make sure not to tap the blue phone icon on the right as this will initiate a call.
    — Yoni Heisler, BGR, 7 Apr. 2022
  • From here, click the Video icon to initiate a call with the group.
    — Anabel Pasarow, refinery29.com, 20 Mar. 2020
  • But this time no search was initiated.
    — Todd Symons, CNN Money, 9 Sep. 2025
  • Taking too long to initiate the action of a set play.
    — Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 24 Feb. 2026
  • But either side is now able to initiate a work stoppage.
    — Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Point your skis down the slope, then initiate a slide slip to one direction.
    — Frederick Dreier, Outside Online, 22 Feb. 2022
  • Don’t prune the plant in fall or early winter since this can initiate new growth.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 30 Sep. 2025
  • An on-site sales gallery to initiate a pre-sales program will open later this fall.
    — Pat Setter, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 Nov. 2017
  • At this is the time of the year, growth has slowed and the plants should soon initiate the flowering process.
    — Tom MacCubbin, orlandosentinel.com, 19 Sep. 2020
  • The driver refused to pull over when deputies tried to initiate a traffic stop.
    — Fox News, 28 July 2021
  • Flat boards work well to initiate turns quickly and improve the overall feel of the board.
    — Nathan Borchelt, Travel + Leisure, 21 Dec. 2023
  • Make sure your hips are lower than your shoulders, then prepare to initiate the lift.
    — Brett Williams, Men's Health, 21 June 2023
  • That is a great time to launch plans and initiate new projects since the chance of success is magnified.
    — Magi Helena, oregonlive, 13 July 2020
  • Press a button near one of the ships, and initiate, for instance, an engine test.
    — Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 6 Mar. 2026
  • For now, drivers will have to signal and initiate the lane change themselves.
    — K.c. Colwell, Car and Driver, 6 Aug. 2021
  • In one case, an initial phone call took weeks to initiate, said Kuennen.
    — Jennifer Calfas, Time, 21 June 2018
  • Hadid made the first move, so will Cameron initiate the convo?
    — Kathryn Lindsay, refinery29.com, 24 July 2019
  • Since it was initiated three days ago, the prescribed fire has burned five acres of private land.
    — Ca Wildfire Bot, Sacbee.com, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The deputy was able to slow down enough to let Reineke pass him in the left lane and then initiate a traffic stop.
    — Amy Lavalley, Post-Tribune, 19 Dec. 2017
  • The company then told him to go to his bank to initiate the return of the money.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 28 June 2022
  • Ready to initiate your pre-Rosh Hashanah shopping spree?
    — Stacia Datskovska, Footwear News, 17 Sep. 2025
  • This is a poor time to initiate new ventures or enter into any type of agreement.
    — Tribune Content Agency, oregonlive, 30 June 2021
  • Black said the women have access to phones, video calls and tablets, and that the inmates have to initiate the call.
    — oregonlive, 12 Sep. 2020
  • The complaint said the deputy spotted a white van in the park and initiated a traffic stop.
    — Kevin Cederstrom / Forum News Service, Twin Cities, 11 Apr. 2017
  • In the week ahead, you may be propelled to initiate new projects with a singular passion.
    — Tribune Content Agency, oregonlive, 15 Nov. 2020

initiate

2 of 3 noun
  • These secrets are known only to a small group of initiates.
  • When the spray was spent, the initiates formed two lines and crawled towards the dais.
    — Sean Williams, Harper's magazine, 19 Aug. 2019
  • Look up the email address or phone number on the official site and initiate contact yourself.
    — Nerd Wallet, oregonlive, 16 Mar. 2021
  • More mature initiates have the benefit of experience to guide them through an informed choice.
    — Brennan Kilbane, WSJ, 25 July 2018
  • At least a half-dozen former initiates would not speak to the Associated Press.
    — Mogomotsi Magome, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2026
  • The order allowed its initiates to debate ideas that the powers that were would’ve certainly deemed dangerous.
    — Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 13 June 2024
  • The process of initiation itself is a symbolic death and rebirth, as though the initiate becomes a new person.
    — Robert Launay, The Conversation, 12 July 2022
  • And there are questions about the effectiveness of such programs, and in some instances, concern that some initiates — and penalties — have gone too far.
    — Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY, 10 Aug. 2017
  • At least a half-dozen former initiates would not speak to The Associated Press.
    — ABC News, 19 Mar. 2026
  • As the camera pans over an eclectic collection of cars, buses and tents, several of the initiates chime in, including one cast member whom the show has not yet disclosed.
    — Jp Mangalindan, Peoplemag, 11 Oct. 2023
  • Democrats say 3,200 incoming freshmen will be eligible for the initiate in the next fiscal year.
    — Sandra Gomez-Aceves, courant.com, 21 Apr. 2018
  • Abakuá is a secret society restricted to male initiates, with a foundational story based on an act of female betrayal.
    — Holland Cotter, New York Times, 22 June 2017
  • The subject of the investigation is not a member of this fraternity and was never an initiate of this Chapter.
    — Amanda Musa, CNN, 2 Feb. 2022
  • Many governments around the world initiate programs, stimulating a rapid switch to electric transport with an objective to achieve their net-zero goals and fight climate change.
    — Nastasya Savina, Forbes, 12 Aug. 2022
  • The initiate’s running or racing abilities represent strength and fortitude, with the length of her run believed to predict the quality and longevity of her life.
    — Outside Online, 27 Jan. 2021
  • The book’s audience seems to be prospective religious initiates of Orphism, the cult that followed the teachings of Orpheus.
    — Teresa Nowakowski, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Jan. 2025
  • Like many initiates, Drotar, a landscaper and father of two who drives a pickup truck, spends a lot of time explaining the organization’s strange name.
    — Jonathan M. Pitts, baltimoresun.com, 25 Apr. 2018
  • Not only were they tied to the Enlightenment, in that they were said to provide equal opportunities to their initiates, but their elections embodied the ideals of the era.
    — Sam Walters, Discover Magazine, 13 June 2024
  • Scambos said this crusty layer will also be a barrier that prevents the downward draining of melt water, which will then flood the surface of the ice sheet and initiate run off at higher elevations.
    — Rachel Ramirez, CNN, 19 Aug. 2021
  • The project mostly caters to initiates, who can test its observations against their prior knowledge of Ferrante, but the authors themselves seem attracted to the role of the amateur.
    — Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2020
  • The plan outline several initiates to help manage officers’ time and improve accountability.
    — Jessica Anderson, baltimoresun.com, 18 July 2019
  • This could limit the company’s ability to raise dividends or initiate buybacks, in a rising interest rate environment.
    — Trefis Team, Forbes, 28 June 2022
  • All the properties—the new initiates and those who re-pledged, so to speak—were honored at an event at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris on June 2.
    — Matt Ortile, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 June 2026
  • Bayou Greenway day changes location each year in an effort to involve all of the communities, and to promote the fact that once the initiate is completed, many different parts of the city will be connected.
    — Rebecca Hazen, Houston Chronicle, 13 Mar. 2018
  • The fun elements attached to the serious nature of peer-coaching outcomes will also enhance memory retention and initiate solution thinking.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 11 Mar. 2021
  • The team could also self-initiate calls, show up in outreach worker’s role to connect a homeless person to services or act as a mental health worker, as dispatched through Multnomah County’s crisis line.
    — oregonlive, 15 Nov. 2019
  • There is plenty of basis for the interpretation that mandalas are symbols of the divine cosmos, designed to teach initiates about the real thing, unless mandalas are vessels in which the divine resides, nothing symbolic about them.
    — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 2 Jan. 2025
  • The film makes clear that the organization is exclusively the province of white, Anglo-Saxon men, and possible initiates are only tapped when the small, fixed group of existing members die.
    — Gary Baum, HollywoodReporter, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Clan members retaliated by refusing to present the first group of initiates before the Umukuuka, a former forestry officer whose real name is Jude Mudoma.
    — Rodney Muhumuza, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2024
  • Like other ideological movements, Randism brims with a jargon of authenticity, tailored to reinforce the sense of belonging for young initiates.
    — Alexander Sammon, The New Republic, 14 Aug. 2019

initiate

3 of 3 adjective
  • Families can pay thousands of dollars and initiate lawsuits, all based on reports that turn out to be flawed.
    — New York Times, 8 July 2021
  • Dunckley tells parents that boredom is a normal, healthy process that stimulates creativity and helps kids initiate play on their own.
    — Washington Post, 24 June 2021
  • Of the Heat’s wings, Dragic comes closest to matching the drive-and-kick game of Butler, as well as the ability to get to the rim and initiate contact.
    — Ira Winderman, sun-sentinel.com, 5 Dec. 2020
  • Under no conditions can the president direct the Supreme Court to take a case or have a case initiate litigation at the Supreme Court level.
    — Alison Medley, Chron, 5 Nov. 2020
  • If people feel physically distant, initiate conversations that allow everyone to come together.
    — Tarot Astrologers, chicagotribune.com, 24 Dec. 2020
  • Science during a crisis is difficult, and the scientific community responded in 2020 with an all-hands effort to design and initiate scores of trials on a moment’s notice.
    — Maciej F. Boni, The Conversation, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Product managers need to document plans thoroughly and ensure other PMs can access them easily and, if necessary, initiate conversations about how everything gels.
    — Hubert Palan, Forbes, 28 May 2021
  • Also announced was a feature called Dynamic View, which automatically adjusts the layout of a Teams Meeting as attendees join, initiate video, or begin to speak or present.
    — Patrick Moorhead, Forbes, 4 Mar. 2021
  • Through Tink, banks can access aggregated financial data, initiate payments, verify account ownership and build personal-finance management tools.
    — Simon Clark, WSJ, 24 June 2021
  • The office will oversee the DWP’s internal audit and special investigations divisions, as well as initiate investigations, the mayor’s office said.
    — Dakota Smith, Los Angeles Times, 13 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'initiate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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