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
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.
“That was my first really inkling of what my daddy did,” he said, “and the type of people that were at the club.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2026
“I had no inkling that it was Janie, none, even though she had told me weeks later, that she did it and blah, blah, blah,” Ortiz told me.
From Slate • Apr. 6, 2026
World” All-Star Game tournament at Intuit Dome whether he had any inkling about what he wants to do next season.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 15, 2026
"I'm outgoing and very confident and I love being around people," Auer says, "but I get that inkling that they all think I'm stupid and ugly, and that my life is a continuum of mistakes."
From BBC • Jan. 16, 2026
I can tell you of the waves and water, but you don’t begin to get an inkling of its size until you stand on the shore.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
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.
