beginning of the end

English

Noun

beginning of the end (uncountable)

1. The point when something starts to end or become worse.
   • 2023 December 11, Fiona Harvey, Patrick Greenfield, Nina Lakhani, Adam Morton, Damian Carrington, quoting Mohamed Adow, “Cop28 draft climate deal criticised as ‘grossly insufficient’ and ‘incoherent’”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Mohamed Adow, the director of Power Shift Africa, said: “This text lays the ground for transformational change. This is the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era.”

Usage notes

Used with the definite article the.

Translations

the point when something starts to end or become worse

• Danish: begyndelsen til enden (da) c
• Finnish: lopun alku (fi)
• French: début de la fin (fr) m
• German: Anfang vom Ende m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: begynnelsen på slutten m

  Nynorsk: byrjinga på slutten f

• Polish: początek końca

References

• “beginning of the end”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “the beginning of the end” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “the beginning of the end” (US) / “the beginning of the end” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.