Enquiry

How to spell enquiry

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce enquiry

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does enquiry mean?

1. nounAn act of asking for information, or the question itself.
2. nounAn official or systematic investigation into a matter.

Enquiry in a sentence

• The hotel received an enquiry about room availability for the weekend.

• The government ordered a public enquiry into the cause of the accident.

• She sent a polite enquiry to the bank regarding the missing payment.

• The committee launched an enquiry after several complaints were filed.

Where does enquiry come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb inquirere, which combined the prefix in-, meaning 'into', with quaerere, meaning 'to seek or ask'; the literal sense was 'to search into' something. It passed into English through Old French enquerre and the related forms, where the opening syllable was often written with an 'e' rather than an 'i', and that French-flavoured spelling survives in the modern British form 'enquiry'. The classical 'in-' spelling also persisted alongside it, which is why English ended up with both 'enquiry' and 'inquiry'; in careful British usage 'enquiry' tends to mean an ordinary question while 'inquiry' suggests a formal investigation, though the two are frequently treated as interchangeable. The same quaerere root feeds a whole family of familiar words, including 'question', 'quest', 'require', and 'inquisitive', all of which carry the idea of seeking or asking. Remembering that this spelling opens with the French-style 'en-' is the key to keeping it apart from the 'in-' form.

How the word is built

• en- (variant of in-: into)
• quir (from Latin quaerere: to seek, ask)
• -y (noun suffix)