duckling
Americannoun
-
ducklings
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of duckling
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English; see origin at duck 1, -ling 1
Explanation
A duckling is a baby duck. Ducklings usually learn to swim by following their mother to a body of water. Ducklings, like all birds, hatch from eggs that are typically laid in a nest. Soon after all the ducklings hatch, the mother duck leads them to water, where most kinds of ducks spend the greater parts of their lives. One of literature's most famous ducklings is the one in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Ugly Duckling" — although that duckling, in the end, turned out to be a swan.
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.
See Examples For:
Over the weekend, a news photographer spotted a dead duckling floating in the pool.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
Mary, on the other hand, is a clumsy bird who, in Hadlow’s telling, becomes a perfectly capable duckling swimming fiercely amid a bevy of swans.
From Salon ● May 20, 2026
Edith saw herself as the ugly duckling but excelled in ballet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026
Clips of a duckling swimming in a bath or two happy pooches patrolling their neighbourhood are examples of the curated programming on "PetTV".
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
It was like the makeover scenes in my American movies, where they take the dorky guy or girl, fix the hair and change the clothes, and the ugly duckling becomes the swan.
From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah
Five unborn ducklings rescued at a sewage works are thriving thanks to a family who took them under their wing.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
A mother mallard with her six little ducklings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Bertsch, of Irvine, gathered some ducklings from a community pool near Morena and Segura and put them in a box, according to an Irvine Police Department news release.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
When emergency crews arrived, they discovered eight ducklings at the bottom of the storm drain and a nervous mother duck nearby, Ben Shearer, the Pasco Fire Department public information officer, told the Tri-City Herald.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024
So, when the next lot of little ducklings hatched, Lorenz bent over them, quacked, and gradually moved away.
From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall
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