nascent

na·scent

adj \ˈna-s^ənt, ˈnā-\

Definition of NASCENT

: coming or having recently come into existence <a nascent middle class> <her nascent singing career>

Examples of NASCENT

1. The actress is now focusing on her nascent singing career.
2. <one of the leading figures in the nascent civil-rights movement>
3. In the mid-'60s, Toronto was home to Yorkville, a gathering spot for draft resisters, a petri dish for a nascent coffeehouse and rock scene similar to the one developing in New York's Greenwich Village. —Mike Sager, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1996
4. It was almost 80 years ago that the Wright brothers from Ohio ventured to Kitty Hawk for the uplift its steady winds offered their nascent passion, airplanes. —Robert R. Yandle, Popular Photography, March 1993
5. A few centuries late, when the nascent science of geology was gathering evidence for the earth's enormous anitiquity, some advocates of biblical literalism revived this old argument for our entire planet. —Stephen Jay Gould, Granta 16, Summer 1985

Origin of NASCENT

Latin nascent-, nascens, present participle of nasci to be born — more at nation

First Known Use: circa 1624

Related to NASCENT

Synonyms: aborning, budding, inceptive, inchoate, incipient

Antonyms: adult, full-blown, full-fledged, mature, ripe, ripened

Related Words: first, formative, inaugural, inchoative, initial, original; elementary, embryonic, fundamental, rudimentary; formless, incoherent; introductory, preliminary, preparatory; crude, primitive, rude

Near Antonyms: advanced, developed, evolved, high, higher, improved, refined

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