nascent

adjective

na·​scent ˈna-sᵊnt  ˈnā- 

: coming or having recently come into existence

a nascent middle class

her nascent singing career

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The Origin of Nascent

Nascent comes from nascens, the present participle of the Latin verb nasci, which means "to be born." It is related to words such as nation, native, nature, and innate.

Synonyms

• aborning
• budding
• inceptive
• inchoate
• incipient

Examples of nascent in a Sentence

In the mid-'60s, Toronto was home to Yorkville, a gathering spot for draft resisters, a petri dish for a nascent coffeehouse and rock scene similar to the one developing in New York's Greenwich Village. —Mike Sager, Rolling Stone, 27 June 1996

It was almost 80 years ago that the Wright brothers from Ohio ventured to Kitty Hawk for the uplift its steady winds offered their nascent passion, airplanes. —Robert R. Yandle, Popular Photography, March 1993

A few centuries late, when the nascent science of geology was gathering evidence for the earth's enormous antiquity, some advocates of biblical literalism revived this old argument for our entire planet. —Stephen Jay Gould, Granta 16, Summer 1985

The actress is now focusing on her nascent singing career.

one of the leading figures in the nascent civil-rights movement

Recent Examples on the Web

Aiming high Though the league is only a year old and still in a relatively nascent stage, it is focused on expansion. —Sam Joseph, CNN, 29 Oct. 2024

New attacks by lone wolf actors and nascent criminal groups have emerged following the collapse of ALPHV/BlackCat and Lockbit, according to Coveware. —Barbara Booth, CNBC, 18 Oct. 2024

This realignment was the central thesis of Kushner’s Abraham Accords, and the Biden Administration has continued building this nascent coalition with a potential US-Saudi defense treaty and associated Saudi normalization with Israel. —Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, TIME, 17 Oct. 2024

Industry experts have noted a growing interest among millennial buyers in video art, despite the medium still being in its nascent stages in India and nostalgia for a pre-partition and pre-urbanization India. —Shreejaya Nair, ARTnews.com, 16 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin nascent-, nascens, present participle of nasci to be born — more at nation

First Known Use

circa 1624, in the meaning defined above

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Medical Definition

nascent

adjective

na·​scent ˈnas-ᵊnt  ˈnās- 

1

: coming or having recently come into existence : beginning to develop

nascent polypeptide chains

2

: of, relating to, or being an atom or substance at the moment of its formation usually with the implication of greater reactivity than otherwise

nascent hydrogen