How to use inkling in a sentence
12 example sentences · noun
Inkling means usually preceded by forms of to give: a slight hint, implication, or suggestion given., A vague idea about something. Example: “These thoughts, of course, came to me later, though even when I was promoted to him, at the age of perhaps fourteen, some inkling haunted me of the dignity of himself and brother.”
Examples of inkling by meaning
nounOften preceded by forms of to get or to have: an imprecise idea or slight knowledge of something; a suspicion.
- These thoughts, of course, came to me later, though even when I was promoted to him, at the age of perhaps fourteen, some inkling haunted me of the dignity of himself and brother.1911, John Galsworthy, “Quality”, in The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays, London: William Heinemann, published October 1912, →OCLC...
- Of the thing that sustains him through trials man has no inkling, much less knowledge, at the time.1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, “निर्बल के बल राम [Nirbala ke bala Rama]”, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments...
- To be fair, others had had inklings of the truth, but it was Darwin who first put together a coherent and tenable account of why we exist.1976, Richard Dawkins, “Why are People?”, in The Selfish Gene, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN; 2nd edition, Oxford...
nounA desire, an inclination.
- One way is to convince its members that their inklings towards change are pathological.1996, Michael Cavanaugh, Biotheology: A New Synthesis of Science and Religion, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 105
- In the Baathist government in Iraq generally, and Saddam Hussein's regime in particular, the nation-state's inkling towards fascist formation became manifest, undaunted by the necessities of political compromise or niceties of liberal temperance.2000, Jacqueline S. Ismael, Shereen T. Ismael, “Gender and State in Iraq”, in Suad Joseph, editor, Gender and Citizenship in the Middle...
More sentences with inkling
- “Entrepreneurs usually have some inkling about a problem they can solve,” he said.2020 January 10, Paul Sullivan, “The Secret of Their Success: It’s Not About the Money”, in The New York Times, archived from the original…. From the entry pivot
- Did you know he had written a book about preparatory schools?” “Hadn't an inkling.1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC. From the entry straighten out
- The wind goes among them detaching sweat-smells from underclothes making muscles itch under overcoats tweaking legs with inklings of dancetime.1975, John Dos Passos, edited by Warren G. French, The Twenties: Fiction, Poetry, Drama, page 132. From the entry dancetime
- People rah-rahed about her good fortune of marrying a Prince, but no one, not even Diana had an inkling of what destiny had in store for her.2021, Oswald Eakins, Deep Inside Diana, The Pain and The Secrets. From the entry rah-rah
- The boy had had the tiniest inkling that his great-aunt wouldn’t like the idea of swapping places with his dad in prison, but he wasn’t giving up yet.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN. From the entry swap places
- Since few of us have any contact with sheep, we may get an inkling of the meaning by thinking of a tour group without a guide.2002, Mark G. Boyer, “Epiphany to the Baptism of the Lord”, in Waiting in Joyful Hope: Daily Reflections for Advent and Christmas…. From the entry tour group
- So dense is the fugg in that department that in my student days no senior had the faintest inkling of Dante's interest, Shakespeare's interest in living.1938, Ezra Pound, Culture, page 56. From the entry fugg
Meaning of inkling
- noun Usually preceded by forms of to give: a slight hint, implication, or suggestion given., A vague idea about something.
- noun Often preceded by forms of to get or to have: an imprecise idea or slight knowledge of something; a suspicion.
- noun A desire, an inclination.
Questions about inkling in a sentence
- How do you use inkling in a sentence?
- Inkling is used as a noun. For example: “These thoughts, of course, came to me later, though even when I was promoted to him, at the age of perhaps fourteen, some inkling haunted me of the dignity of himself and brother.”
- What is a short sentence with inkling?
- ““Entrepreneurs usually have some inkling about a problem they can solve,” he said.”
- What does inkling mean?
- Inkling means usually preceded by forms of to give: a slight hint, implication, or suggestion given., A vague idea about something.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: inkling (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use inkling in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/inkling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.