bleeding edge

American

the most advanced stage of a technology, art, etc., usually experimental and risky.

bleeding edge British

noun

the very forefront of technological development

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bleeding edge

1980–85; patterned on cutting edge or leading edge

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Anthropic is at the bleeding edge of AI and its diminishment would set back American leadership in an industry critical to economic and strategic dominance.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 13, 2026

Lamphere, it would seem, was on the bleeding edge of a new kind of therapy.

From Slate • Jan. 30, 2026

As an MIT computer-science professor, Regina Barzilay was used to living on the bleeding edge of innovation, teaching computers to understand words in the nascent field of natural language processing.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 11, 2025

"Especially as we work in an environment at the bleeding edge of technology - we're kind of used to things changing," he says.

From BBC • Oct. 9, 2025

This show is at the very bleeding edge of my exhibition practice that way.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 19, 2024

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023