Other forms: inklings
An inkling is a faint idea that something is so. Not an inkling, the first inkling, have an inkling.
It is used far more often in the negative — no inkling, not the slightest inkling — than in the positive, which is unusual. It means less than a suspicion and more than nothing: enough to make you look, not enough to say.
1nouninklingA faint idea that something is so.
“I had no inkling that they were planning a surprise party for me.”
inkling is an idea.
Middle English nykling meant a hint or a whisper. An inkling was probably misdivided from a nykling.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₁eng-
Middle English
ningkiling
English, today
inkling
Built from
From Middle English ningkiling, nyngkiling (“hint, slight indication; mention, whisper”), and then either:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Thinking & Memory