Word
fledgling
Phoneticsfledg·ling
US/ˈfɫɛdʒɫɪŋ/
UK/flˈɛdʒlɪŋ/
Definition
n. a person or organization that is new and lacks experience. It can also mean a young bird that has just grown its feathers and is learning to fly.
n. an inexperienced person or a nascent organization; literally, a young bird that has recently acquired its flight feathers. Often used metaphorically to describe entities in the earliest stages of development.
Examples
“The fledgling company is still looking for its first office.”
“The government provided grants to support fledgling tech startups during their first year of operation.”
“While the fledgling democracy faced significant internal strife, international observers remained hopeful that its first free elections would establish a foundation for long-term stability.”
Examples
simple
“The fledgling company is still looking for its first office.”
contextual
“The government provided grants to support fledgling tech startups during their first year of operation.”
complex
“While the fledgling democracy faced significant internal strife, international observers remained hopeful that its first free elections would establish a foundation for long-term stability.”
Usage
Commonly used as a noun-modifier (e.g., 'fledgling industry') to indicate a lack of maturity or experience.
Real-World Examples
“The France under-21 international scored eight times in a difficult debut season in England but has half that amount two games into this fledgling campaign.” “This allowed him the autonomy to shape the fledgling genre in ways that he wanted which, in the case of Clarissa (1748), meant 1m words written entirely in epistolary form.” Etymology
From fledge (“prepare for flying”) + -ling.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/fledgling