Word.ws English Dictionary

fledgling

/ˈflɛd͡ʒ.lɪŋ/

fledgling adjective: untried or inexperienced.

Adjective

fledgling (not comparable)

  1. Untried or inexperienced.
    • His trenchant criticisms of the Church's repression […] include a discussion of the considerable 1938 success of the fledgling NODL in getting magazines removed from various points of sale.2011, Jay A. Gertzman, Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940
    Synonyms:
    unfledged, virginal
  2. Emergent or rising.
    • Harry Boland was born in Dublin in 1884 and educated with his younger brother Gerry in Clontarf. His father James, who greatly influenced him was politically active in the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the fledgling GAA. Harry Boland fought at the GPO in April 1916 and was interned in Dartmoor...1997 August 5, “Film failed to do justice to drama surrounding death of Harry Boland”, in The Irish Times
    • Less than 24 hours later, Aker’s fledgling green energy and technology unit, Aker Horizons, revealed it had landed a bigger catch, with its planned purchase of Roscommon native Eddie O’Connor’s Mainstream Renewable Power for up to €1 billion.2021 January 22, Joe Brennan, “Has Eddie O’Connor underestimated the value of his €1bn baby?”, in The Irish Times
    Synonyms:
    nascent, emerging

Noun

fledgling (plural fledglings)

  1. A young bird which has just developed its flight feathers (notably wings).
  2. An insect that has just fledged, i.e. undergone its final moult to become an adult or imago.
  3. (figuratively) An immature, naïve or inexperienced person.

fledgling meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

fledgling in Tamil

உலக அனுபவமற்றது, பறக்கத் தொடங்கிய குஞ்சு

fledgling in Urdu

چوزہ, نوخیز, تازہ پر والا

fledgling in Bengali

নবাগত, অনভিজ্ঞ ব্যক্তি

fledgling in Malayalam

baby bird, chick, nestling
പക്ഷിക്കുഞ്ഞ്, ചിറകുമുളച്ച പക്ഷിക്കുഞ്ഞ്, പാർപ്പ്, തൂവൽ വന്ന പക്ഷിക്കുഞ്ഞ്, പുതുതായി ചിറകു മുളച്ച പക്ഷിക്കുഞ്ഞ്, കോഴിക്കുഞ്ഞ്
emerging, emergent, sunrise
ചിറകുവച്ച, ചിറകുമുളച്ച, ജാതപക്ഷ, മുളച്ചുവരുന്ന, പറക്കമുറ്റിയ, വളരുന്ന
More languagesFewer languages
fledgling in Punjabi
ਬੋਟ boṭ
fledgling in Tagalog
inakay, sisiw

Examples of fledgling in a sentence

  • Fledglings can only be fed finely chopped meat.
  • The state’s fledgling pot market, envisioned as a low-key, mom-and-pop industry, would be Wal-Marted, some feared.
  • Over the years it drew such fledgling business leaders as Gerald Hines and Fayez Sarofim.

All 11 example sentences with fledgling

Synonyms of fledgling

Forms of fledgling

Adjective
alternative formfledgeling
Noun
pluralfledglings

Origin of fledgling

From fledge (“prepare for flying”) + -ling.

Phrases with fledgling

Questions about fledgling

What does fledgling mean?
Fledgling means untried or inexperienced.
What is fledgling in Tamil?
Fledgling in Tamil is உலக அனுபவமற்றது, பறக்கத் தொடங்கிய குஞ்சு. See Fledgling meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is fledgling?
Fledgling can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce fledgling?
Fledgling is pronounced /ˈflɛd͡ʒ.lɪŋ/.

Words near fledgling in the dictionary

  1. fledgeless
  2. fledgeling
  3. fledgelings
  4. fledges
  5. fledging
  6. fledgling
  7. fledglinghood
  8. fledglings
  9. fledgy
  10. flee
  11. fleeable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fledgling (page history and authors); fledgling (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fledgling (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Fledgling (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); fledgling (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-fledgling.ogg.

Cite this entry: “fledgling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fledgling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.