inkling.

A faint idea or suspicion of something not yet clearly known.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• an inkling of trouble
• no inkling

On the page

He had an inkling that the visit was not purely social.

Usage notes

Primary category: literary / elevated general. Forms: Singular inkling; plural inklings. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.