starting point

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starting point (plural starting points)

1. (sometimes figurative) The place where a journey starts.

   Synonym: point of departure

   King's Cross Station proved to be the starting point of a journey that took me around the world.

2. The first steps when commencing an activity.

   Synonym: point of departure

   Examining the data and facts will be a good starting point.

   • 1979, Katheryn McAllister Linduff, Tradition, Phase and Style of Shang and Chou Bronze Vessels‎, Garland Publishing, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 93:

     What Loehr called the Middle Western Chou is the probable starting point, that is, during the mid-eleventh century B.C.⁵⁸ when a breakdown in the old order of Phase I can be documented. For instance, a yu found at T'un-hsi, Anhui, (Plate 19) is decorated with intertwining birds both on the belly and lid and exemplifies this conversion.

   • 2012 March-April, Terrence J. Sejnowski, “Well-connected Brains”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, archived from the original on 27 April 2017, page 171:

     Creating a complete map of the human connectome would therefore be a monumental milestone but not the end of the journey to understanding how our brains work. The achievement will transform neuroscience and serve as the starting point for asking questions we could not otherwise have answered, […].

• starting time

• train spotting, trainspotting