Nascent descends from the Latin verb nasci, meaning “to be born,” as does many an English word, from nation and nature to innate and renaissance. But rather than describing the birth of literal babies—as in pups, kits, hoglets, et al.—nascent is applied to things (such as careers or technologies) that have recently formed or come into existence, as when scholar Danille K. Taylor-Guthrie wrote of Toni Morrison being “an integral part of a nascent group of black women writers who would alter the course of African American, American, and world literature.”
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 1996It 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 1993A few centuries late, when the nascent science of geology was gathering evidence for the earth's enormous antiquity, some advocates of biblical literalism revived this old argument for our entire planet.—Stephen Jay Gould, Granta 16, Summer 1985
The actress is now focusing on her nascent singing career.
one of the leading figures in the nascent civil-rights movement
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Surfacing the answers to these can provide leaders with enough clarity necessary to launch their nascent quantum roadmaps.—Dr. Jonathan Reichental, Forbes.com, 13 June 2026 The connectivity segment also includes the nascent Starlink Mobile direct-to-cell business and Starshield, which military experts say is reshaping warfighting.—Morgan Brennan,harriet Taylor, CNBC, 12 June 2026 The Food and Drug Administration has only authorized a handful of wearable features for clinical use, and the evidence base for using wearable data to inform medical care is nascent.—Mario Aguilar, STAT, 9 June 2026 And that could be a problem for any nascent deal between the United States and Iran.—Burgess Everett, semafor.com, 8 June 2026 See All Example Sentences for nascent
Word History
Etymology
Latin nascent-, nascens, present participle of nasci to be born — more at nation