fledgling

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: fledg=ling

CIDE DICTIONARY

fledgling, n. 

•  a new member of a group.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  A young bird just fledged.  [1913 Webster]

fledgling, adj. 

•  having just acquired its flight feathers; -- of a young bird; as, a fledgling robin.  [WordNet 1.5]
•  young and inexperienced; as, a fledgling enterprise; a fledgling skier.  [WordNet 1.5]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

fledgling, n. (also fledgeling)
1 a young bird.
2 an inexperienced person.

Etymology

FLEDGE + -LING(1)

THESAURUS

fledgling

Young Turk, abecedarian, adolescent, alphabetarian, apprentice, arriviste, articled clerk, at half cock, avifauna, baby, baby bird, beginner, bird, bird of Jove, bird of Juno, bird of Minerva, bird of night, bird of passage, bird of prey, birdie, birdlife, birdling, birdy, boot, boy, bright young man, bub, bubba, buck, bud, buddy, cage bird, calf, callow, catechumen, catling, chick, chickling, chicky, colt, comer, cub, cygnet, deb, debutant, dewy, diving bird, dogie, dove, duckling, eagle, eaglet, entrant, ever-new, evergreen, fawn, fellow, firsthand, fish-eating bird, flightless bird, foal, fowl, fresh, freshman, fruit-eating bird, fryer, fulmar, game bird, gosling, green, greenhorn, greeny, half-baked, half-cocked, half-grown, hobbledehoy, hopeful, ignoramus, ill-digested, immature, impubic, inductee, infant, initiate, insect-eating bird, intact, junior, juvenal, juvenile, kid, kit, kitten, lad, laddie, lamb, lambkin, learner, litter, maiden, maidenly, manchild, master, migrant, migratory bird, minor, modern, modern generation, modern man, modernist, modernizer, muchacho, neologism, neologist, neology, neonate, neophyte, neoteric, neoterism, neoterist, nest, nestling, new, new boy, new generation, new man, newcomer, nouveau riche, novice, novitiate, novus homo, original, oscine bird, owl, parvenu, passerine bird, peacock, peafowl, peahen, perching bird, pigeon, piglet, pigling, polliwog, postulant, pristine, probationer, probationist, pubescent, pullet, pup, puppy, ratite, raw, raw recruit, recruit, rising generation, rookie, sapling, schoolboy, sea bird, seed-eating bird, sempervirent, shoat, shore bird, slip, songbird, sonny, sonny boy, sprig, squab, storm petrel, stormy petrel, stripling, swan, tadpole, teenager, teener, teenybopper, tenderfoot, trainee, tyro, unbeaten, underripe, undeveloped, unfledged, unmellowed, unripe, unseasoned, untouched, untried, untrodden, unused, upstart, vernal, virgin, virginal, wading bird, warbler, water bird, waterfowl, weaner, whelp, wildfowl, yeanling, young, young hopeful, young man, young person, younger, youngest, youngling, youngster, youth