The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Genesis \Gen"e*sis\, n. [L., from Gr. ge`nesis, fr. the root of
   gi`gnesqai to beget, be born; akin to L. genus birth, race.
   See Gender.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. The act of producing, or giving birth or origin to
      anything; the process or mode of originating; production;
      formation; origination.
      [1913 Webster]

            The origin and genesis of poor Sterling's club.
                                                  --Carlyle.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The first book of the Old Testament; -- so called by the
      Greek translators, from its containing the history of the
      creation of the world and of the human race.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Geom.) Same as Generation. Genet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

genesis
    n 1: a coming into being [syn: genesis, generation]
    2: the first book of the Old Testament: tells of Creation; Adam
       and Eve; the Fall of Man; Cain and Abel; Noah and the flood;
       God's covenant with Abraham; Abraham and Isaac; Jacob and
       Esau; Joseph and his brothers [syn: Genesis, Book of
       Genesis]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

94 Moby Thesaurus words for "genesis":
   abiogenesis, accouchement, adaptation, alpha, archigenesis,
   babyhood, beginning, beginnings, biogenesis, biological evolution,
   birth, birth throes, birthing, blastogenesis, blessed event,
   childbearing, childbed, childbirth, childhood, commencement,
   conception, confinement, cradle, dawn, dawning, delivery,
   derivation, development, digenesis, epigenesis, eumerogenesis,
   freshman year, generation, giving birth, grass roots, hatching,
   having a baby, head, heterogenesis, histogenesis, homogenesis,
   horotely, inception, inchoation, incipience, incipiency,
   incunabula, infancy, isogenesis, labor, merogenesis, metagenesis,
   monogenesis, multiparity, nascence, nascency, nativity,
   natural selection, ontogenesis, ontogeny, opening, origin,
   original, origination, orthogenesis, outset, outstart, pangenesis,
   parthenogenesis, parturition, phylogenesis, phylogeny,
   physiogenesis, physiogeny, pregnancy, procreation, provenance,
   provenience, radical, radix, rise, root, setout, source,
   spontaneous generation, start, stem, stock, tachytely, taproot,
   the Nativity, the stork, travail, youth



Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary:

Genesis
   The five books of Moses were collectively called the Pentateuch,
   a word of Greek origin meaning "the five-fold book." The Jews
   called them the Torah, i.e., "the law." It is probable that the
   division of the Torah into five books proceeded from the Greek
   translators of the Old Testament. The names by which these
   several books are generally known are Greek.

     The first book of the Pentateuch (q.v.) is called by the Jews
   Bereshith, i.e., "in the beginning", because this is the first
   word of the book. It is generally known among Christians by the
   name of Genesis, i.e., "creation" or "generation," being the
   name given to it in the LXX. as designating its character,
   because it gives an account of the origin of all things. It
   contains, according to the usual computation, the history of
   about two thousand three hundred and sixty-nine years.

     Genesis is divided into two principal parts. The first part
   (1-11) gives a general history of mankind down to the time of
   the Dispersion. The second part presents the early history of
   Israel down to the death and burial of Joseph (12-50).

     There are five principal persons brought in succession under
   our notice in this book, and around these persons the history of
   the successive periods is grouped, viz., Adam (1-3), Noah (4-9),
   Abraham (10-25:18), Isaac (25:19-35:29), and Jacob (36-50).

     In this book we have several prophecies concerning Christ
   (3:15; 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; 49:10). The author of
   this book was Moses. Under divine guidance he may indeed have
   been led to make use of materials already existing in primeval
   documents, or even of traditions in a trustworthy form that had
   come down to his time, purifying them from all that was
   unworthy; but the hand of Moses is clearly seen throughout in
   its composition.


Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's):

Genesis, beginning