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
Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 June 2026
But even though police have not identified a suspect or disclosed a motive, there are enough clues to give us some inkling about what transpired.
—Lizzie Lanuza, StyleCaster, 2 June 2026
My inkling is that if the AI wasn’t explicitly prompted to leverage its mental health capabilities, the user wouldn’t realize that the AI could be helpful to them.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 31 May 2026
The Stomp-Clap Song and the Gingerbread Cookie Dance, both released in 2021, had already given them some inkling that videos that taught dances were a potentially popular niche.
—Veronique Greenwood, Time, 29 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for inkling
Cite this Entry
“Inkling.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inkling. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
Copy Citation
