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:
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 is an incredibly difficult thing to go from turning that person from an ugly duckling into a swan."
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2024
The ugly duckling grows into a swan, Pinocchio becomes a boy.
From "Brown Girl Dreaming" by Jacqueline Woodson
"We just followed it along like little ducklings."
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
A mother mallard with her six little ducklings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
“This place is amazing,” said Bunni Amburgey, who adopted several newborn ducklings.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2024
Traffic came to a halt near the South Everett Park & Ride due to a mother mallard and eight ducklings crossing the southbound lanes.
From Seattle Times ● May 19, 2024
Having discussed with my neighbour in the country the difficulty of sexing her ducklings, I now know, as Donne surely did, that sexing can be far from straightforward.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
