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start over meaning and examples

2025-09-16

Meaning

“Start over” is a phrasal verb that means to begin again from the beginning, often after making a mistake or when something does not go as planned.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: Phrasal verb
  • Verb type: Intransitive (it does not take a direct object)
  • Structure: start over
  • Used when someone stops what they are doing and goes back to the beginning.

Example structures:

  • “Let’s start over.”
  • “She had to start over after losing her work.”

Common Phrases

  • start over again – emphasize the idea of restarting.
  • have to start over – used when it is necessary to restart.
  • start all over – more emphatic, meaning completely from the beginning.

Collocations

  • start over from scratch
  • start over with a new plan
  • start over in life

Examples

  1. The computer crashed, and I had to start over.
  2. He made too many mistakes, so the teacher told him to start over.
  3. After the divorce, she decided to start over in a new city.
  4. Let’s forget what happened and start over.
  5. They lost the game but promised to start over with more practice.
  6. The writer wasn’t satisfied with the draft and started over.
  7. Sometimes it’s better to start over than to fix a broken project.
  8. I deleted the file by accident, so I had to start over from scratch.
  • begin again
  • restart
  • redo
  • start from scratch

Antonym

  • continue
  • carry on
  • keep going