inkling
Americannoun
-
a slight suggestion or indication; hint; intimation.
They hadn't given us an inkling of what was going to happen.
-
a vague idea or notion; slight understanding.
They didn't have an inkling of how the new invention worked.
noun
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Etymology
Origin of inkling
1505–15; obsolete inkle to hint ( Middle English inklen ) + -ing 1; akin to Old English inca suspicion
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.
We had no inkling at the time what the public response would be - but it was soon clear that something astonishing was happening.
From BBC
Pettit’s first inklings that bubbles could be important came from monitoring glacier changes from afar.
From National Geographic
Playing with the No. 1 defense gave Jackson an inkling that he’d earned the nod.
From Seattle Times
"There's not even the smallest inkling of proof," he said in an interview in 2018.
From Reuters
Lexy Silverstein, a digital marketing student at FIDM, has heard inklings about this potential partnership and said she could be affected, depending when it is implemented.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
