noun
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a young bird that has just fledged
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Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of fledgling
Explanation
A fledgling is a fuzzy baby bird just learning to fly, or someone (like a baby bird) who's brand new at doing something. Awww. If you're not talking about a baby bird, fledgling is often used as an adjective describing a new participant in something, like a fledgling senator still learning the ropes of how to legislate, or a fledgling drama program trying to build audiences for its plays. It can also mean inexperienced and young, like the fledgling photographer for the school paper who accidentally erases all the pictures. If you're British, spell it fledgeling if you like — both spellings are correct.
Vocabulary lists containing fledgling
Words of a Feather: Unflappable Avian Vocabulary
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I'm New Here...
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The Secret Garden
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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.
See Examples For:
Deep-sea mining seeks to tap previously untouched seabed deposits of a range of commodities, including cobalt and nickel, but the fledgling industry has long been stalled by environmental concerns.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Internet users have proven they’ll make a habit of swinging by these fledgling new spaces — if the conversation is interesting enough.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
The fledgling lab is in talks to raise more than $500 million from investors, and its tech talent includes a half-dozen other former Googlers, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Instead, the fledgling PM focused on the type of crime, ensuring those mentioned above would stay behind bars.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
To the readers of Popular Electronics, in those days the bible of the fledgling software and computer world, that headline was a revelation.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
"Year by year now, we're getting more little tern fledglings off and away back to Africa - so that's really amazing."
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
Their fledglings are about one third lighter, even though the warmest days they experience reach similar temperatures of about 16-17ºC.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026
The early seeds of Owens Viani’s work on the issue began around 2011, when a neighbor ran over to tell her that Cooper’s hawk fledglings had drowned in his kiddie pool.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2024
Birdhouse owners say that they wait until the fledglings have left the nest before they harvest and that neither the parents nor their babies are harmed.
From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
They will dig away the earth from under the bodies of small creatures, such as shrew mice and fallen fledglings, and then lay their eggs on them before covering them with soil.
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
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.
