What's the difference between hint and inkling?

Hint


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To bring to mind by a slight mention or remote allusion; to suggest in an indirect manner; as, to hint a suspicion.
  • (v. i.) To make an indirect reference, suggestion, or allusion; to allude vaguely to something.
  • (n.) A remote allusion; slight mention; intimation; insinuation; a suggestion or reminder, without a full declaration or explanation; also, an occasion or motive.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The tunes weren't quite as easy and lush as they had been, and hints of dissonance crept in.
  • (2) "Hints that the license fee payer will be hit are the closest the Tories come to explaining how they intend to pay for this."
  • (3) There is never any chink in her composure – any hint of tension – and while I can't imagine what it must feel like to be so at ease with one's world, I don't think she is faking it.
  • (4) Following a first-half surrender, they performed appreciably better in the second period with little cameos hinting at better days to come – eventually.
  • (5) #IfTheyGunnedMeDown tackled the way in which people of colour, especially men, are represented in the media (hint: usually as thuggish and criminal).
  • (6) In addition, practical hints on other means of retention are offered, with the emphasis on nuisance-free and easy application.
  • (7) Henry had hinted during a recent interview with French newspaper L’Equipe he could be interested in a future coaching role with the Gunners, and Wenger insisted on Tuesday that Henry’s return is a certainty when asked about a reunion with the former France striker.
  • (8) | Amy Lawrence Read more Sampdoria have already expressed their interest in bringing Balotelli back to the league where he has represented both Internazionale and Milan, and now Bologna’s director of sport, Pantaleo Corvino, has hinted at a loan deal.
  • (9) The slogan will be unveiled at a rally in Warwick tomorrow, but Alexander gave no hint of Gordon Brown calling an election before 6 May, emphasising the need for a slow reappraisal of Labour to take root.
  • (10) While Chinese media have not spelt out Zhou's woes explicitly, the hints have grown more blatant by the month, with some identifying him via his family relationships.
  • (11) Governor Mark Carney once hinted that a UK rate rise might be on the horizon.
  • (12) In a speech focused on national security, Liam Fox , who is trailing his fellow Tory leadership candidates in terms of support from MPs, hinted that he had doubts that a candidate without significant experience could handle the job.
  • (13) It would have been unprecedented for a large bloc such as the Freedom Caucus to have voted against the party’s choice of nominee, as they had hinted they might do with Webster.
  • (14) Furthermore it was possible to confirm the postoperative space of time needed until restoration of an undisturbed bladder function as a relatively reliable prognostic hint to the expected success of the operation.
  • (15) I got a hint of the price she has paid for her ambidextrous approach to cultural identify after her last interview was published, when a shocking number of British Pakistani men got in touch to denounce her as a shameful infidel.
  • (16) This is no time for partisan politics | Simon Jenkins Read more Downing Street has also hinted that the 1% cap on public sector pay increases could be lifted in the autumn budget, after a growing number of Tory MPs aired their concerns about the policy continuing.
  • (17) He has remained mostly out of sight since his defeat, but recently, while stopping short of any explicit pledge of a comeback, he and his entourage have dropped heavy hints that he may return to the frontline of French politics to "save" the country.
  • (18) It's set in Tokyo, presumably for the Nakatomi connection, and Trebilcook hinted on Twitter that we might see some old faces again.
  • (19) In an article for the Sunday Times, Cameron hinted that other nations in Europe – many of them dependent on Russian gas – are less willing to consider sanctions that could hit their own economies.
  • (20) There has been nothing explicit to confirm as much, but the hints have been there.

Inkling


Definition:

  • (n.) A hint; an intimation.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) 'Co-operating with the authorities' Stahl, a New Jersey-based attorney who specialises in representing people from the former Soviet Union, stressed that his client had been fully co-operating with the FBI and that he had no inkling that the items removed from Tsasrnaev's dorm room were connected to the bombings.
  • (2) The very first inkling of what would be dubbed the Bristol sound was the Wild Bunch's spartan treatment of Bacharach and David's classic The Look of Love , released in 1988 on 4th & Broadway.
  • (3) Samsung's lawyers may have some inkling of the amount, because of a per-handset deal Samsung has made with Microsoft to license patents the software giant claims are infringed by Android.
  • (4) They might wonder whatever happened to nu-metal, although the rise of emo might have given them an inkling; and they might be bemused by the sheer number of synthesiser-prodding female singer-songwriters, such as Lady Gaga and Little Boots.
  • (5) We’d had some inkling that she wanted to move to a different city, but I share parental responsibility for Charlie: those sorts of decisions, and changing schools, can’t happen if I don’t agree.” Feeling worried by his ex-wife’s plans, Johnson had applied under his own steam to the family court for a prohibited steps order.
  • (6) When exhausted European leaders emerged from all-night negotiations in Brussels last month with a "comprehensive" plan to claw the euro back from the abyss, they could have had no inkling that, less than a fortnight later, it would have so comprehensively collapsed.
  • (7) He probably had an inkling he wasn't going to share a cognac with Kissinger that evening, but it spoke volumes that he tried.
  • (8) Teachers and pupils at the duchess's old school, where she showed off her hockey skills and then had lunch, said they had "no inkling" of her pregnancy.
  • (9) Megumi's parents had no inkling of the nature of her disappearance until 1997, when Ahn Myong-jin, a former North Korean spy who defected to the South, talked at length about an abducted Japanese girl matching her description.
  • (10) "There was another one – Two – who we had an inkling was for intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi, but we haven't heard that one mentioned for a while leading us to believe he has been either killed or escaped into the desert.
  • (11) Guy Jubb, head of corporate governance at Standard Life, has said: "I don't believe anyone had an inkling that this payment, which is almost the largest figure in the remuneration report, was going to surface."
  • (12) The wounds from this fight seem fresh even now, probably because, as Dawkins suggests, the assault came from so close to home and without warning: "They did this thing in print without giving him the slightest inkling what was going on," he says.
  • (13) Last year the justices deadlocked 4-4 when trying to decide the extent of Barack Obama’s authority to shield undocumented people from deportation, and they released no inkling of their arguments.
  • (14) Portman said that up until that point he had had no inkling that his son was anything other than straight.
  • (15) From the age of six you have an inkling of your own mortality, and most have a good understanding of what's going on.
  • (16) Whereas Topolanek's homophobia has forced his resignation there is no inkling that Cameron is willing to take action against Grayling.
  • (17) He said: "First of all, I think my text to him was saying basically, 'I'm worried this process doesn't look like it's being run fairly,' and his response was saying, 'Well, we've got a solution,' and I think in between me sending a text to him and me getting that response, at official level we had an inkling that No 10 were thinking of transferring the responsibility to me as a way of dealing with the issue."
  • (18) Parliament passed the Ripa law to allow GCHQ to trawl for information, but it did so 13 years ago with no inkling of the scale on which GCHQ would attempt to exploit the certificates, enabling it to gather and process data regardless of whether it belongs to identified targets.
  • (19) Emmanuel has an inkling: "I think soap actors are totally underrated on how hard they work: you're prepared to go the extra mile to get the job done.
  • (20) Sri Lanka’s idyllic palm-fringed beaches with new tourist resorts give no inkling of the country’s grim recent history: a nearly three-decades-long, brutal and bloody conflict that ended almost five years ago with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, known as the Tamil Tigers.