inkling

noun

in·kling ˈiŋ-kliŋ

Synonyms of inkling next

: a slight knowledge or vague notion

had not the faintest inkling of what it was all about—

H. W. Carter

: a slight indication or suggestion : hint, clue

there was no path—no inkling even of a track—

New Yorker

Did you know?

This may come as a surprise, but inkling has not a drop to do with ink, whether of squid, tattoo, or any other variety. Originating in English in the early 16th century, inkling comes instead from Middle English yngkiling, meaning “whisper or mention,” and perhaps further back from the verb inclen, meaning “to hint at.” An early sense of the word meant “a faint perceptible sound or undertone” or “rumor,” but now people usually use the word to refer to a vague notion someone has (“had an inkling they would be there”), or to a hint of something present (“a conversation with not even an inkling of anger”). One related word you might not have heard of is the rare verb inkle, a back-formation of inkling that in some British English dialects can mean “to utter or communicate in an undertone or whisper, to hint, give a hint of” or “to have an idea or notion of.” (Inkle is also a noun referring to “a colored linen tape or braid woven on a very narrow loom and used for trimming” but etymologists don’t have an inkling of where that inkle came from.)

Examples of inkling in a Sentence

did not give the slightest inkling that he was planning to quit

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Was there the slightest inkling that possibly, possibly the woman wasn’t consenting?…No. —

Jessica Bennett, VIBE.com, 29 Jan. 2025 Security threat for users While the calls from Moolenaar could be the first inkling of a possible congressional crackdown, Ross Burley — a co-founder of the nonprofit Centre for Information Resilience — warned that DeepSeek's emergence in the U.S. raises data security and privacy issues for users. —

Emmet Lyons, CBS News, 28 Jan. 2025 But Jamie, who is friends with her and has known her forever, had the first inkling of a possibility or an openness to reading something. —

Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2025 Nvidia may have had an inkling that this would be the case, which is why these two RTX series cards cost $50 less than their original RTX 4000 series equivalents, whereas the RTX 5090 costs $400 more than the RTX 4090 did at launch. —

Antony Leather, Forbes, 9 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for inkling