Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A slight hint or indication.
- n. A slight understanding or vague idea or notion.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A hint; an intimation; a slight or imperfect idea or notion.
- n. Inclination; desire.
Wiktionary
- n. A slight suspicion or hint.
- n. dialect Inclination, desire.
- v. present participle of inkle.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A hint; an intimation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a slight suggestion or vague understanding
Etymologies
- From Middle English, from inklen, inclen ("to give an inkling of, hint at, mention, utter in an undertone"), from inke ("apprehension, misgiving"), from Old English inca ("doubt, suspicion"), from Proto-Germanic *inkô (“ache, regret”), from Proto-Indo-European *yenǵ- (“illness”). Cognate with Old Frisian jinc ("angered"), Old Norse ekki ("pain, grief"), Norwegian ekkje ("lack, pity"). (Wiktionary)
- Probably alteration of Middle English (a) ningkiling, (a) hint, suggestion, possibly alteration of nikking, from nikken, to mark a text for correction, from nik, notch, tally, perhaps from variant of Old French niche, niche; see niche. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It's hard to know where to start when your best inkling is to read some papers and try to find time with the overbooked senior graduate student.”
“If I do, the inkling is to want to pitch to him, but maybe there's a situation where we pitch around him," he said.”
“She'll maybe have had some inkling from the Lord that her bairn was coming.”
“I’m getting in inkling of why CBS says they had to shut down comments on on Obama stories. dsbo lhxromacd Says:”
“But, just the same, the inkling is a built-in nuance or, "tell"; and it does exist.”
“Just how you managed to work "inkling" into a discussion that started out with Tolkien and Lewis!”
“I just cannot believe, no offense to the bride, that there was just no "inkling" this "wedding cake lady" to be kind was less than professional?”
“How much in advance I don't know, but we would probably have some kind of inkling that it was going on.”
“If Ms. Fox had an 'inkling' [phonetic/pun] of what it is to simply deliver the product, she might want to consider washing her hands of the whole thing.”
“But then folks here at home opened up their USA Today newspaper, heard about this domestic database, and they said we should have had some kind of inkling consistent with national security about what was really going on.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘inkling’.
-
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...
-
Olde Englisc
English words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
onslaught, slain, clove, clave, thrice, nincompoop, scorn, storm, scant, lurk, beneath, atop and 143 more...
-
Words related to knowledge
Words that relate to learning, knowing, being enlightened...
revelation, eureka, awakening, idea, sapient, astute, canny, intelligent, wise, sharp, shrewd, informed and 467 more...
-
Artistic words
Good for poetry, or just artistic on their own.
fluxus, gallant, kinetic, lurk, disengage, mist, agleam, voyeur, devoid, crimson, ebony, azure and 94 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
a Doppelgänger story
words you'd find in a Doppelgänger story
mistaken identity, fetch, evil twin, delusion, nephele, dead ringer, sosia, supplant, usurp, svengali, dichotomy, dialectic and 19 more...
-
Ideas
brainchild, inspiration, muse, genius, eureka, discovery, intellectual prop..., intangible asset, goodwill, patented, savant, brainiac and 76 more...
-
2
kerniving, scandinavia, confectionary, mangrove, bejewelled, flesh, crystalline, gazelle, pantaloons, bluebird, caribou, albatross and 88 more...
-
Bitty Bites
Lyricism and Lollipops, naysayers forbidden... thanks sucker:)
ephermal, acausal, intricate, seldom, braggart, vagabond, naysayer, psychocunt, iconoclastic, dibbler, smattering, precursor and 4 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1856 more...
-
jan_21
magoosh listens
infuriating, galvanize, sporadic, imperciptible, shirk, protean, versatile, auspicious, clairvoyance, nary, predilection, inkling and 63 more...
-
♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
-
Reckon's Word List
Turned On
tintinnabulation, talisman, soliloquy, serendipity, quintessential, rhapsody, plethora, myrrh, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, loquacious and 102 more...
-
word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for inkling.
fbharjo see first comment in this grouping Mar 27, 2012
Louises The first inkling of animal clarity was already there, a kind of vicious joy in the power that would come. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.
Mar 27, 2012
bilby See ninkling. Oct 3, 2008
vanishedone In the English translation of Haruki Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, INKlings are 'Infra-Nocturnal Kappa'. From 'The Use of Certain Fantastic Concepts in the Fiction of Murakami Haruki' (PDF):
'...a subterranean labyrinth underneath Tokyo which is inhabited by creatures called yamikuro (an invented word which might be rendered "Darkling")... In this I concur with Susan Napier's suggestion, rather than Birnbaum's acronymic "INKlings", or "infra-nocturnal Kappa", which is entirely his own invention, the need for which is not readily apparent.' Nov 3, 2007
uselessness If I could be part of any "secret society" or somesuch legendary thing, I would join the Inklings. Oct 12, 2007
fbharjo a group at Oxford in the early 20th century with such members as c.s. lewis, owen barfield, J R tolkien ..... who are both prophets and smudge pots... who both had clear and smudge thought were called the "Inklings"...did they have a clue of their impact??????? Oct 12, 2007