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• quæstion (archaic)

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛs.tʃən/, /ˈkwɛs.tjən/, /ˈkwɛʃ.tʃən/
  • (US also) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛʃ.tən/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛs.tʃɛn/, /ˈkwɛʃ.tʃɛn/, /ˈkwɛ.ʃɛn/
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛ.ʃən/, /ˈkwɛʔ.ʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛstʃən
• Hyphenation: ques‧tion

From Middle English question, questioun, questiun, from Anglo-Norman questiun, from Old French question, from Latin quaestiōnem, accusative of quaestiō (“a seeking, investigation, inquiry, question”), from quaerere (“to seek, ask, inquire”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Italic *kʷaizeō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”).

Partially displaced native Old English āscung. Compare also Middle Low German quēstie (“questioning; inquiry”), Middle High German questje (“question”).

Cognates include English quest.

question (plural questions)

1. A worded or expressed sentence, phrase, or only a word on its own, which asks for information, a reply, or a response; an interrogative.

   What is your question?

   • 1913, Joseph C Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

   • 2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4:

     Can I ask you two a question? / Please, Christ, yes. / How can you two live like this? / How can... / Don't google the question, Moss!

2. A subject or topic for consideration or investigation.

   The question of seniority will be discussed at the meeting.

   There was a question of which material to use.

   I've ordered it all, but there’s still the question of who’s going to pay.

   • 2014 October 14, David Malcolm, “The Great War Re-Remembered: Allohistory and Allohistorical Fiction”, in Martin Löschnigg, Marzena Sokolowska-Paryz, editors, The Great War in Post-Memory Literature and Film‎, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG., →ISBN, page 173:

     The question of the plausibility of the counter-factual is seen as key in all three discussions of allohistorical fiction (as it is in Demandt's and Ferguson's examinations of allohistory) (cf. Rodiek 25–26; Ritter 15–16; Helbig 32).

3. A doubt or challenge about the truth, accuracy, or validity of a matter.

   His claim to the property has come under question.

   The story is true beyond question.

   He obeyed without question.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, John 3:25:

     There arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.

   • 1622 (date written), Francis , “An Advertisement Touching an Holy Warre. ”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. , London: I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, , published 1629, →OCLC:

     It is to be to question, whether it be lawful for Christian princes or states to make an invasive war, only and simply for the propagation of the faith.

   • 2021 April 2, Ciara Nugent, “Can Public Transit Survive the Pandemic? London's New Transport Commissioner Wants You to Believe It Can”, in Time‎:

     The pandemic has not only caused an immediate fall in ticket revenues for the world’s public transit networks—rail ridership in Barcelona, Moscow, Beijing and New York City at times plummeting 80%—in some cities it also has thrown into question the future of mass urban transportation.

4. A proposal to a meeting as a topic for deliberation.

   I move that the question be put to a vote.

5. (now archaic, historical, chiefly with definite article) Interrogation by torture.
   • 1751, Smollett, chapter LXXVII, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle , volume II, London: Harrison and Co., , →OCLC:

     I, not at all ambitious of the crown of martyrdom, resolved to temporize: so that, when I was brought to the question the second time, I made a solemn recantation

   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

     The Scottish privy council had power to put state prisoners to the question.

6. (obsolete) Talk; conversation; speech.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Made she no verbal question?

• (interrogative): inquiry, enquiry, query, interrogation
• (subject): subject, topic, problem, consideration, proposition
• (doubt): issue, doubt
• (proposal): proposal

• query
• quest

From Middle English questionen, questyonen, partly from Middle French questionner and partly from the noun.

question (third-person singular simple present questions, present participle questioning, simple past and past participle questioned)

1. (transitive) To ask questions of; to interrogate; to ask for information.
   • 1836, Frederick W. Thomas, East and West, volume 2:

     Yet he lingered in Perryville with the determination of seeing Ruth, and questioning her about Helen Murray's letters.

   • 1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, pages 54–55:

     However, a Carlisle newspaper got hold of the story, and at the half-yearly meeting of the Caledonian Railway Company, held on March 17, 1863, a shareholder, Mr. Meiklem, questioned the Chairman, Lt.-Col. Salkeld, regarding a "Chase of Engines," described in the newspaper article. The Chairman admitted that the statements made in the article were perfectly true.

   • 2019, Nic Pizzolatto, “The Hour and the Day”, in True Detective, season 3, episode 4 (television):

     Another former resident noticed the car because it was new and upscale and no one ever came back to question him. This points to serious flaws in the investigation from the beginning.

2. (transitive) To raise doubts about; have doubts about.
   • 1985 April 17, Frank Herbert, 15:46 from the start, in Frank Herbert speaking at UCLA 4/17/1985‎, UCLACommStudies, archived from the original on 10 February 2017:

     Question things. I have the most fun when I'm writing questioning things that people do not question- the assumptions that everybody knows are true.

   • 2019, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     He questioned South Korean claims that China is a major source of its pollution.

   • 2023 September 12, Paul Glader, “Four takeaways from Walter Isaacson’s biography of Elon Musk”, in CNN‎:

     Isaacson reports that Musk’s fractured relationship with Jenna, who is trans, partly led to Musk’s rightward turn toward libertarianism and questioning what he considers the “woke-mind-virus, which is fundamentally antiscience, antimerit, and antihuman.”

3. (intransitive) To ask a question or questions; inquire or seek to know; examine.
   • 1597, Francis Bacon, Of Discourse:

     He that questioneth much shall learn much.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To argue; to converse; to dispute.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I pray you, think you question with the Jew.

• frain, quaeritate (obsolete)

• question the question
• questioner

• answer
• ask
• interrogative

• “question”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “question”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• quæstion (obsolete)

Inherited from Middle French and Old French question (12th c.), borrowed from Latin quaestiō. At first a learned word, therefore retaining preconsonantal -s- (compare related quête).

• IPA^(key): /kɛs.tjɔ̃/

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -jɔ̃

question f (plural questions)

1. (historical, chiefly with the definite article) question (interrogation by torture)
2. question (sentence, phrase or word which asks for information, reply or response)

   Coordinate term: réponse

   Je voudrais vous poser une question. ― I would like to ask you a question.

3. issue, matter, topic, problem

• “question”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

• quêtions, toniques

• IPA^(key): /kwesˈtjon/

question (plural questiones)

1. question

question

1. alternative form of questioun

• Audio:

  (file)

question f (plural questions) (Languedoc, Limousin)

1. question

   Synonym: demanda

   Antonym: responsa

   pausar una question ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• Diccionari General de la Lenga Occitana, L’Academia occitana – Consistòri del Gai Saber, 2008-2024, page 558.

Borrowed from Latin quaestiō, quaestiōnem.

question oblique singular, f (oblique plural questions, nominative singular question, nominative plural questions)

1. question (verbal statement intended to elicit a response)
2. question (problem in need of resolution)

• → Middle English: questioun, question, questiun, questyon, questyounn, qwestyon, qwestioun
  • English: question
  • Scots: quaisten, quastin
  • → Welsh: cwestiwn
• French: question
  • → Romanian: chestie, chestiune
• Norman: tchestchion (Jersey)

• question on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub