noun, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of giving an answer.

   "An answer that comes out of the whirlwind is, logically, no answer at all: it belongs to a world above that of logical answerings."

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of answer form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   replying wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

acknowledgmentanalogousantiphonback talkcoequalcomeback

Example

More examples

"You are quite justified in answering him back."

Etymology

From Middle English answerynge; equivalent to answer + -ing.

Related phrases

answering pennant

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.