Fledged

How to spell fledged

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce fledged

What does fledged mean?

1. adjectiveHaving reached full development, qualification, or status, often in the phrase 'fully fledged'.
2. verbPast tense of fledge: having grown the feathers needed for flight and left the nest.

Fledged in a sentence

• adjective

  After three years of training she became a fully fledged accountant.

• verb

  By midsummer the young swallows had fledged and left the eaves.

• adjective

  The small workshop grew into a fully fledged manufacturing business.

• verb

  The chicks fledged early because the warm spring sped their growth.

Where does fledged come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The root lies in Old English, where the adjective 'flycge' meant 'having the feathers needed to fly', describing a young bird ready to leave the nest. This in turn traces back to a Germanic root tied to the verb meaning 'to fly', the same family that gives us 'fly', 'flight', and 'fledgling'. The modern verb 'fledge', meaning to acquire flight feathers, appeared in English in the 1500s, and 'fledged' is its past and adjectival form. From the literal bird sense it broadened into the figurative phrase 'fully fledged', meaning completely developed or qualified, by the 1800s. The silent 'd' tucked between the 'g' and the 'e', plus the soft 'j' sound of the 'dge', is what makes the spelling trip people up, since the ear hears 'flejd' but the page needs the full 'dged' cluster.

How the word is built

• fledge (to grow the feathers needed for flight)
• -ed (past tense / adjective suffix)