nascent
Americanadjective
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beginning to exist or develop.
That nascent republic is holding its first election this month.
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Chemistry. (of an element) in the nascent state.
adjective
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starting to grow or develop; being born
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chem (of an element or simple compound, esp hydrogen) created within the reaction medium in the atomic form and having a high activity
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of nascent
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin nāscent-, stem of nāscēns “being born,” present participle of nāscī “to be born, arise”
Explanation
The adjective nascent describes the birth or beginning of something, like a civilization, a trend, an idea, or an action. If your idea for a time machine is nascent, it needs a lot more work before you'll be ready to travel to ancient Egypt. Imagine you’re in the future looking back at the first time you learned the definition of the word nascent. Your nascent efforts to use the word felt awkward, but you quickly felt comfortable with it, especially after you learned how to pronounce it: “NAY-sent.” Now you use the word all the time!
Vocabulary lists containing nascent
This Week in Words: September 1 - 7, 2018
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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.
In 2009, he shocked the legal industry by departing Skadden for Kirkland & Ellis, which at the time had only a nascent mergers-and-acquisitions practice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
Burnham, 56, announced three feel-good measures designed to offer Britons and businesses some early modest help with high living costs, which he has made the focus of his nascent administration.
From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026
ESPN’s direct-to-consumer streaming service, designed to lessen its dependency on declining cable TV revenue, is still in its nascent stage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
Writing in a daily note to clients, Louis Gave, founding partner and co-chief executive of Gavekal Research in Hong Kong, discussed the relative success of China’s nascent AI industry.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026
What made their partnership extraordinary was that during this nascent period of nuclear physics, theorists and experimentalists customarily regarded each other with mutual condescension and suspicion.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
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.
