Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A young bird that has recently acquired its flight feathers.
- n. A young or inexperienced person.
- adj. New and untried or inexperienced: a fledgling enterprise.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A young bird just fledged.
- n. Hence A raw or inexperienced person.
- Newly fledged; untried.
Wiktionary
- adj. this sense?) untried or inexperienced
- n. literally A young bird which has just developed its flight feathers (notably wings).
- n. figuratively An immature, naïve and/or inexperienced person.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. prenominal having just acquired its flight feathers; -- of a young bird.
- adj. young and inexperienced.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any new participant in some activity
- adj. (of a young bird) having acquired its flight feathers
- n. young bird that has just fledged or become capable of flying
- adj. young and inexperienced
Etymologies
- From fledge 'prepare for flying' + diminutive suffix -ling (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The site is in fledgling stages, so info and photos are lacking a bit, but I do think this site needs to branch out into sweetwater.”
“LONDON — Police increased their guard around Buckingham Palace and other landmarks Wednesday as security officials monitored what they described as a fledgling terror plot to wage Mumbai-style shooting sprees or other attacks on Britain, France or Germany.”
“Lest anyone suspect that her head was turned by the exhilarating successes of the past year, however, she called her fledgling venture Abishag Productions.”
“Here, he says that anyone who supports the United States in this occupation should be attacked, that is, the fledgling government here.”
“Recalling the fledgling days in founding his 826 Valencia literary program for children, author Eggers called Kass his mentor.”
“Their instinct, though, is right on: having just the right trademark can make or break a fledgling product or technology.”
“MONTREAL - When Quebec politician Henri Bourassa proposed to call his fledgling newspaper Le Devoir - or The Duty - there were doubts even in his elevated circle as to whether a paper by that name devoted to harping on the theme of "public duty" would find a sustaining readership.”
“Organizers and participants in the nation's only working cap-and-trade program for carbon emissions called the fledgling attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a success Wednesday.”
“KONKRET, called the fledgling paper "Baby-FAZ," implying that it wasn't very different from the bourgeoisie”
“They plan to call the fledgling organisation Rainka, a combination of "rainbow" and "kankra", a word they use among themselves that Mbewe says is based on the Bemba word for fruits.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘fledgling’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Gene Wolfe
Please contribute your favorite words from any of Gene Wolfe’s books to this prize-winning list.
In case you come across words in this list which are too commonplace to fit in, please ...gallipot, roost, badelaire, oblesque, execration, dhole, amschaspand, arctother, chalcedony, penitence, asimi, autarch and 839 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Naresh_Gre2
convoke, cosset, coterie, declaim, distaff, doff, dovetail, droll, dyspeptic, egress, ersatz, euphemism and 108 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2057 more...
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LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
abduct, abducting, abductor, Achaea, Achaean, Achilles, advise, Aegean, Aegean Sea, Aegina, aegis, Aeneas and 713 more...
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Words that should be heard in songs m...
Inspired by PossibleUnderscore's list of words overused in modern pop music.
giant squid, bamboo, colonic, herbivore, raptor, dodecahedron, largesse, sinuses, dim sum, carburetor, transubstantiation, wife and 54 more...
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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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(LING)uistics
Words ending in 'ling'
youngling, fledgling, quisling, ridgeling, stripling, kitling, scatterling, earthling, foundling, hatchling, sapling, seedling and 7 more...
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FYS100
Word discovery & discussion by CSUMB first-year students, to help with required texts.
trippy, bantam, patience, Roseto, Froth, legit, patronage, quarries, compatriot, intact, baby boomer, virtuosos and 35 more...
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to memorize
words i need to memorize
aberrant, abscond, advocate, aggrandize, amalgamate, ambiguous, ambrosial, anomalous, antediluvian, antipathy, arbitrate, assuage and 163 more...
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Advanced Words: Part II
facetious, felicitous, grandiloquent, germane, repatriate, exigency, exculpate, etheral, fatuous, heterogeneous, hiatus, idiosyncrasy and 118 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 3063 more... -
eggplantia5's Words
scintillate, marvel, cranberry, oscillate, triumph, bamboozle, grimace, magical, book, hexagon, cipher, compendium and 2727 more...
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zanshin's Words
gargoyle, ennui, paradigm, aardvark, verisimilitude, ghoti, tenacity, nescience, guillemet, squonk, maven, moxie and 210 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for fledgling.

rolig It is interesting that the Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors, one of the leading British spelling guides, recommends the spelling fledgling (not fledgeling). But of course, it approves the British spellings acknowledgement and judgement. Now why is that? Jun 8, 2011
hernesheir The Time Bandits were forever planting and repotting hedglings until they came into possession of The Map. Mar 2, 2010
bilby We could always make up some more.
"She was on a diet and only had two fudglings at the candy store." Mar 2, 2010
hernesheir Thanks bilby! Mar 2, 2010
hernesheir sandglass also contains the -dgl- sequence; a consonant+blend combination different from that of fledgling. Mar 2, 2010
bilby ridgling - colt with undescended testicles. I don't know whose job it is to go around groping young 'orses but I'm glad it's not me.
sandglass has a different pronunciation of your pet cluster. Mar 2, 2010
hernesheir Really like the -dgl- cluster this word is centered upon. Any other -dgl- examples, Wordnikies? Mar 2, 2010