Inquiry
//ɪnˈkwaɪəɹi// noun
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The act of inquiring; a seeking of information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning. countable, uncountable
- 2 a systematic investigation of a matter of public interest wordnet
- 3 A search for truth, information, or knowledge; examination of facts or principles; research; investigation; inquest. countable, uncountable
"Scientific inquiry"
- 4 a search for knowledge wordnet
- 5 an instance of questioning wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"We have just received an inquiry from Kansas concerning your brother."
Etymology
From Middle English enquery, from the Old French verb enquerre, from Latin inquīrō, composed of in- (“in, at, on; into”) + quaerō (“I seek, look for”), of uncertain origin, but possibly from Proto-Italic *kʷaizeō, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂- (“to acquire”). Later respelled to conform to the original Latin spelling, as opposed to the Old French spelling.
Related phrases
More for "inquiry"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.