inquiry

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

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Nouns

1. inquiry, enquiry; question, request; search, research, quest, pursuit; examination, test, intelligence test; review, scrutiny, investigation, inspection, probe; trial, hearing; inquest, inquisition; exploration, ventilation; sifting, calculation, analysis, dissection, reverse engineering; audit; resolution; induction; Baconian method; autopsy, postmortem; strict, close, searching, or exhaustive inquiry; narrow or strict search; study, consideration. Informal, exam. See curiosity, thought, learning.

2. (act of inquiring) questioning, interrogation, grilling, third degree, interrogatory; interpellation; challenge, examination, cross-examination, catechism; questionnaire; feeler, Socratic method, leading question; koan; discussion (see reasoning); reconnoitering, reconnaissance; prying, espionage, spying, intelligence, counterintelligence; [aptitude, achievement, intelligence, IQ, or placement] test, Scholastic Aptitude Test, SAT, Graduate Record Examination, GRE, true-false or multiple-choice test, makeup test, quiz, oral or written exam[ination], standardized test; oral, rectal, etc. examination (see remedy). Slang, fishing expedition.

3. (subject of inquiry) question, query, problem, topic, talking point, proposition, desideratum, point to be solved, subject or field of inquiry, subject of controversy; point or matter in dispute; moot point; [question at] issue; bone of contention (see discord); fair or open question; frequently asked question, FAQ; enigma (see secret); knotty point (see difficulty); sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.

4. (one who inquires) inquirer, investigator, inquisitor, inspector, querist, examiner, prober, cross-examiner, watchdog committee; spy, secret or intelligence agent, operative, undercover agent, counterspy, double agent; detective, operative, private eye or detective, plainclothesman, house detective; federal, government, or treasury agent; catechist; analyst; busybody (see curiosity); secret service, intelligence community, military, naval, etc. intelligence, FBI, CIA. Informal, op. Slang, shamus, gumshoe; mole; [private or house] dick, G-man, T-man, the Company, cousins.

Verbs

1. inquire, seek, search; look for, look about for, look out for; scan, reconnoiter, explore, sound, rummage, ransack, pry, peer, look round; cast about or around, scrounge around; scavenge; look or go through or over; spy; peer or pry into every hole and corner; trace; ferret out, unearth, leave no stone unturned; smell, sniff, feel, sound, seek, or search out, run down, hunt up, nose or poke about or around, seek a clue, hunt, track, trail, hound; follow the trail or scent, dowse; pick one's way; pursue (see pursuit); thresh or smoke out; fish, feel, or grope for. Slang, shake down.

2. (make inquiries) investigate, check [up] on; follow up; look up, look at or into; preexamine; discuss, comb, canvass, agitate; browse; examine, study, consider, calculate, monitor; delve into, prove, sound, fathom; scrutinize, analyze, anatomize, dissect, sift, winnow; audit, review, take stock of; take into consideration (see thought); take counsel (see advice). Informal, kick around, hash over. Slang, clock, make, moose around.

3. (ask a question) ask, question, demand; ventilate; grapple with or go into a question; interrogate, catechize, quiz, grill, pump, cross-question, cross-examine, give the third degree; pick the brains of; frisk; feel out.

Adjectives — inquiring, inquisitive, curious; catechetical, inquisitorial, analytic; in search or quest of; on the lookout for, interrogative; in question or dispute, in issue, under discussion, investigation, or consideration; sub-judice, moot, proposed; doubtful (see doubt).

Adverbs — what? why? wherefore? whence? whither? where? how goes it? how is it? what is the reason? what's the matter? what's in the wind? what on earth? when? who? how come? what's up? what's new?

Phrases — ask a silly question and you get a silly answer; ask no questions and hear no lies; seek and ye shall find.

Quotations — In examinations, those who do not wish to know ask questions of those who cannot tell (Sir Walter Raleigh), One hears only those questions for which one is able to find answers (Friedrich Nietzsche), Try to love the questions themselves (Rainer Maria Rilke), It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers (James Thurber), Some questions don't have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn (Katharine Graham).

Antonyms, see answer.

II

(Roget's IV) [p]n.

1. [An act or instance of questioning]

Syn. query, request, interrogation, questioning; see question 1 .

2. [An investigation]

Syn. probe, analysis, hearing; see examination 1 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. questioning query, quiz, interrogation, inquisition, *Q and A, grilling, *third degree, cross-examination.

2. investigation probe, examination, scrutiny, inspection, study, analysis, exploration.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) also enquiry noun 1. A request for data: interrogation, query, question. Law: interrogatory. See ASK, INVESTIGATE. 2. A seeking of knowledge, data, or the truth about something: inquest, inquisition, investigation, probe, research. See INVESTIGATE.