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
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.
Beijing got an inkling that Trump thought more transactionally about Taiwan than his predecessors in 2017, during his first state visit to China.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 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
That includes at least one former clerk who may well be in contact with the justice and even have an inkling of his plans.
From Slate • Feb. 13, 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
Nobody, least of all humans themselves, had any inkling that their descendants would one day walk on the moon, split the atom, fathom the genetic code and write history books.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
