inkling
Americannoun
-
inklings
plural
-
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
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of inkling
1505–15; obsolete inkle to hint ( Middle English inklen ) + -ing 1; akin to Old English inca suspicion
Explanation
Is someone yapping on and on and you only have the vaguest idea of what they're talking about? Then you understood just an inkling — a glimmer, a fraction — of what they were saying. Inkling can also mean a sly suggestion or faint implication. If someone drops a hint you're not wanted they've given you an inkling you're not wanted. The word comes from the medieval English word inclen, which suitably enough means "to utter in an undertone." In other words, what's really being said is in between the lines of what's actually being said on the surface. By now you've probably got the inkling that inklings can be sneaky things.
Vocabulary lists containing inkling
Wonder
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Flowers for Algernon
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The Diary of a Young Girl
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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:
LONDON—The first inkling that a thaw in the relations between Prince Harry and his father, King Charles III, came earlier this summer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026
"I always had an inkling that it wouldn't actually go through, because the public consultations have gone on and on and on," she said.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Spence’s first inkling that chili would be an issue came in his first town hall in Houston after the deal was announced.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Bill Clinton has said he “had no inkling of the crimes” Epstein was committing and learned of them only through media reports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 26, 2026
Even when we have an inkling that we are speaking in a specialized lingo, we may be reluctant to slip back into plain speech.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
That’s how science works: You come up with a good idea backed by some inklings of evidence, you gather more information, and you often learn you were wrong.
From Slate ● Jun. 20, 2025
We get one of the first inklings of Captain's true mastery of language whenever he's challenged by one of the incarnations of Robert Downey Jr. in the series.
From Salon ● May 12, 2024
Those were like little inklings of the movie.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2024
And what were your first inklings that this wasn’t the whole story?
From Scientific American ● Nov. 9, 2023
But that orphans’ home inspired no inklings of thankfulness in my heart.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
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.
