hatchling

C2+ Topic:Animals

US /ˈhætʃlɪŋ/ UK /ˈhætʃlɪŋ/ See IPA manual

Meanings

1

noun
a young animal newly emerged from an egg

The turtle hatchlings scrambled across the sand toward the surf.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 noun · a young animal newly... chick nestling fledgling young

Opposites

adult

Word family

Related forms hatchhatchery

Etymology

From hatch (verb, 'to emerge from an egg') plus the diminutive suffix -ling; hatch derives from Middle English hacchen, of uncertain Germanic origin.

hacchen Middle English

View etymology graph ->

Topics

Animals Word Formation & Derivatives

External links

# hatchling

**Type:** Word
**Level:** C2+
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈhætʃlɪŋ/
**IPA (UK):** /ˈhætʃlɪŋ/

## Meanings
1. a young animal newly emerged from an egg

## Examples
- The turtle hatchlings scrambled across the sand toward the surf.

## Synonyms
- chick
- nestling
- fledgling
- young

## Antonyms
- adult

## Related Forms
- hatch
- hatchery

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: hacchen
- Affix: -ling - small

## Etymology
From hatch (verb, 'to emerge from an egg') plus the diminutive suffix -ling; hatch derives from Middle English hacchen, of uncertain Germanic origin.

## AI Etymology
hatchling comes from hatch (verb, 'to emerge from an egg') plus the diminutive suffix -ling; hatch derives from Middle English hacchen, of uncertain Germanic origin. Morphologically, the ending is part of the etymology: the suffix is attached to the older base named in the history, producing a later English derivative. The etymology remains cautious where the history is cautious: comparisons, echoic formation, or disputed derivation do not make the ancestry more definite than the forms actually named. In present English, the noun sense is "a young animal newly emerged from an egg", so the historical development ends in a clearly identifiable modern dictionary use. The same base also appears in related forms such as hatch and hatchery. Its semantic neighborhood includes chick, nestling, fledgling, and young, which helps locate the modern sense without adding a separate etymological claim. The named historical forms include Middle English hacchen.

## Topics
- Animals
- Word Formation & Derivatives

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