Definition of "incipient" []

• Beginning to exist or appear: detecting incipient tumors; an incipient personnel problem. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Over the period of time, there was a gap in terms of the number of forces that should have been on the ground and what I call the incipient growth of this insurgency."
• "The hope, he felt, lay in incipient black militancy, in latent white decency, and, above all, in education."
• "To say "Margaret Thatcher" is to see every past president's eye light up, and the vocal chords quiver in incipient introduction."