Definition of "origin" in English

noun

1. The beginning of something.

   • place of origin
   • trace the origin of something
   • unknown origin
   • The custom has its origin in ancient Greece.
   • Scientists are studying the origin of the universe.

2. The source of a river, information, goods, etc.

3. (mathematics) The point at which the axes of a coordinate system intersect.

4. (anatomy) The proximal end of attachment of a muscle to a bone that will not be moved by the action of that muscle.

5. (cartography) An arbitrary point on Earth's surface, chosen as the zero for a system of coordinates.

6. (in the plural) Ancestry.