"take the initiative" meaning in English

See take the initiative in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: takes the initiative [present, singular, third-person], taking the initiative [participle, present], took the initiative [past], taken the initiative [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|take<,,took,taken> the initiative}} take the initiative (third-person singular simple present takes the initiative, present participle taking the initiative, simple past took the initiative, past participle taken the initiative)
  1. (idiomatic) to take action first or on one's own; to make the first move Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: seize the initiative
    Sense id: en-take_the_initiative-en-verb-EAzIAdw0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> the initiative"
      },
      "expansion": "take the initiative (third-person singular simple present takes the initiative, present participle taking the initiative, simple past took the initiative, past participle taken the initiative)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to take action first or on one's own; to make the first move"
      ],
      "id": "en-take_the_initiative-en-verb-EAzIAdw0",
      "links": [
        [
          "take action",
          "take action"
        ],
        [
          "make the first move",
          "make the first move"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) to take action first or on one's own; to make the first move"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "seize the initiative"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "take the initiative"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "takes the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taking the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "took the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "taken the initiative",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "take<,,took,taken> the initiative"
      },
      "expansion": "take the initiative (third-person singular simple present takes the initiative, present participle taking the initiative, simple past took the initiative, past participle taken the initiative)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to take action first or on one's own; to make the first move"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "take action",
          "take action"
        ],
        [
          "make the first move",
          "make the first move"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) to take action first or on one's own; to make the first move"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "seize the initiative"
    }
  ],
  "word": "take the initiative"
}

Download raw JSONL data for take the initiative meaning in English (1.2kB)

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.