fledgling

1. 1.

   (of a young bird) having acquired its flight feathers

   “a fledgling robin”

   Synonymsfledgeling

   Similarfledged
2. 2.

   young and inexperienced

   “a fledgling enterprise”

   “a fledgling skier”

   “an unfledged lawyer”

   Synonymsunfledgedcallow

   Similarinexperienced

Other forms of fledgling

plural

fledglings·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about fledgling

What does fledgling mean?

fledgling means "any new participant in some activity". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in fledgling?

fledgling has 2 syllables: fled-gling. The stress falls on "fled". In IPA it is /ˈflɛdʒlɪŋ/.

What is another word for fledgling?

Close synonyms include newcomer, fledgeling, starter, neophyte, freshman. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is fledgling a common word?

fledgling is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.