fledgling

noun, often attributive

fledg·ling | \ ˈflej-liŋ

How to pronounce fledgling (audio)

\

Definition of fledgling

1 : a young bird just fledged (see fledge sense 1) a female bird feeding her fledglings

2 : an immature or inexperienced person fledgling medical students

3 : one that is new a fledgling company

Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about fledgling

Keep scrolling for more

Examples of fledgling in a Sentence

a female bird feeding her fledglings at hockey he's still a fledgling and needs to work on his basic skating skills

Recent Examples on the Web Airbnb was a fledgling entity in 2010, having been founded just two years prior. — Tribune News Service, cleveland, "Google search trends show how travel has changed in the last decade," 29 Dec. 2019 As things stand, the fledgling relationship between Moon and Kim is on ice. — Paula Hancocks, CNN, "Why North Korea wants nothing to do with South Korea," 19 Dec. 2019 Toscanini declined to perform at Bayreuth while Nazi banners flew, instead lending his prestige to the fledgling Palestine Symphony Orchestra. — The Economist, "The classical musicians who were enlisted in the cold war," 12 Dec. 2019 León signed Rosalía as a fledgling flamenco act and oversaw her signing to Sony Spain and Columbia, followed by her album El Mal Querer hitting No. 1 on Latin Pop Albums. — Billboard Staff, Billboard, "Revealed: Billboard's 2019 Women In Music Top Executives," 12 Dec. 2019 Unlike Romney, who really was merciless about destroying jobs if that’s what the business strategy required, Buttigieg was merely a fledgling McKinsey consultant, with scant power to make decisions on anything. — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, "Does It Really Matter That Buttigieg Worked for McKinsey?," 11 Dec. 2019 The wrenching transition is revealing the difficulty of luring mainstream buyers to a fledgling, expensive technology. — Joe Mcdonald, chicagotribune.com, "China’s electric car sales slump, squeezing automakers," 10 Dec. 2019 At the time, much of Wall Street was indifferent to the fledgling fintech industry, viewing many of the companies as too small to bother with. — Sophie Alexander, Bloomberg.com, "He Left Goldman to Hunt Fintechs and Now Catches Unicorns," 6 Dec. 2019 Mayor Greg Fischer hit the television airwaves Tuesday morning to advocate for the former New York City mayor's fledgling presidential campaign in his new role. — Darcy Costello, The Courier-Journal, "Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer to co-chair Michael Bloomberg's presidential campaign," 26 Nov. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fledgling.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about fledgling

Dictionary Entries near fledgling

Statistics for fledgling

Last Updated

7 Jan 2020

Cite this Entry

“Fledgling.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fledgling. Accessed 17 January 2020.

Keep scrolling for more

Keep scrolling for more

WORD OF THE DAY

tontine

a plan in which a last survivor takes all

Test Your Vocabulary

The Eponym Quiz

Which is the best synonym of bowdlerize?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

Dictionary Devil

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.