The initial oxidative polymerization kinetics of 2,6-dimethylphenol (DMP) catalyzed by a Cu(II)–EDTA complex in water was studied. The initial polymerization rate of DMP (R 0 ) increases with an increase in concentrations of DMP and catalyst. R 0 firstly increases with the molar ratio of N/Cu and then decreases. The reaction order with respect to oxygen is 0.1. R 0 increases with NaOH concentration and reaches its maximum value at a concentration of 0.50mol/L. 1/R 0 is in direct proportion to 1/[DMP] 0 , which indicates that the initial polymerization kinetics of DMP in water obeys Michaelis–Menten model. The dissociation rate constant of the intermediate complex (k 2 ) and Michaelis–Menten constant (K m ) at various temperatures are calculated. It is found that both k 2 and K m increase with an increase in temperature.