Fledgling

How to spell fledgling

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce fledgling

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fledgling mean?

1. nounA young bird that has just grown the feathers needed to fly and is leaving the nest.
2. adjectiveNew, inexperienced, or only beginning to develop, said of a person, business, or venture.

Fledgling in a sentence

• noun

  A fledgling hopped along the lawn while its parents watched from the fence.

• adjective

  The fledgling company struggled to win its first major contract.

• noun

  The wildlife centre takes in any fledgling that has fallen and cannot yet fly.

• adjective

  She ran a fledgling charity from a single rented office.

Where does fledgling come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows out of the verb 'fledge', which traces back to the Old English adjective element '-flycge', meaning 'having feathers' or 'ready to fly', part of the wider Germanic family of words for feathers and flight. By the late Middle Ages 'fledge' described a young bird that had finally grown the wing feathers it needed to leave the nest. The diminutive ending '-ling', long used in English to mark something small or young (as in 'duckling' and 'yearling'), was added to produce a noun for the young bird itself. The word only appears in writing from around the early nineteenth century, and almost immediately it was also used figuratively for any person, business, or venture that was new and still inexperienced. The spelling trap is the silent 'e' of 'fledge' that vanishes before the '-ling' ending, so the modern form is 'fledgling', not 'fledgeling'.

How the word is built

• fledge (to grow feathers and be ready to fly)
• -ling (diminutive/young-thing suffix)