Question

How to spell question

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce question

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does question mean?

1. nounA sentence or phrase put to someone in order to get information or a reply.
2. verbTo express doubt about something or to ask someone for information.

Question in a sentence

• noun

  The interviewer asked a difficult question about my last job.

• verb

  Auditors began to question the figures in the annual report.

• noun

  Every question on the exam carried equal marks.

• verb

  Police wanted to question the witness about the accident.

Where does question come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin quaestio, meaning 'a seeking' or 'an inquiry', which was built on the verb quaerere, 'to seek, to ask, to inquire'. That same root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'quest', 'inquire', and 'request', all of which share the idea of seeking something out. English took the word in the 1200s by way of Old French question, where it already covered both 'a thing asked' and 'a point in dispute'. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the -stion cluster is pronounced like 'schun', so the silent-looking t and the unstressed -ion ending can easily be jumbled. Keeping the visible 'quest' inside the word is the easiest way to anchor the correct spelling.

How the word is built

• quest (from Latin quaerere: to seek, ask)
• -ion (noun suffix)