Adjacent Words

Inquiry definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INQUI'RY, n.
1. The act of inquiring; a seeking for information by asking questions; interrogation.
The men who were sent from Cornelius, had made inquiry for Simon's house,and stood before the gate. Acts 10.
2. Search for truth, information or knowledge; research; examination into facts or principles by proposing and discussing questions, by solving problems, by experiments or other modes; as physical inquiries; inquiries about philosophical knowledge.
The first inquiry of a rational being should be, who made me? the second, why was I made? who is my Creator, and what is his will?

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a search for knowledge; "their pottery deserves more research than it has received" [syn: inquiry, enquiry, research]
2: an instance of questioning; "there was a question about my training"; "we made inquiries of all those who were present" [syn: question, inquiry, enquiry, query, interrogation] [ant: answer]
3: a systematic investigation of a matter of public interest [syn: inquiry, enquiry]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ries) Date: 15th century 1. examination into facts or principles ; research 2. a request for information 3. a systematic investigation often of a matter of public interest

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 an investigation, esp. an official one. 2 = ENQUIRY. Phrases and idioms: inquiry agent Brit. a private detective.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Inquiry In*quir"y, n.; pl. Inquiries. [See Inquire.] [Written also enquiry.] 1. The act of inquiring; a seeking for information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning. He could no path nor track of foot descry, Nor by inquiry learn, nor guess by aim. --Spenser. The men which were sent from Cornelius had made inquiry for Simon's house, and stood before the gate. --Acts x. 17. 2. Search for truth, information, or knoledge; examination into facts or principles; research; invextigation; as, physical inquiries. All that is wanting to the perfection of this art will undoubtedly be found, if able men . . . will make inquiry into it. --Dryden. Court of inquiry. See under Court. Writ of inquiry, a writ issued in certain actions at law, where the defendant has suffered judgment to pass against him by default, in order to ascertain and assess the plaintiff's damages, where they can not readily be ascertained by mere calculation. --Burrill. Syn: Interrogation; interrogatory; question; query; scrutiny; investigation; research; examination.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(inquiries) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. Note: The spelling 'enquiry' is also used. 1. An inquiry is a question which you ask in order to get some information. He made some inquiries and discovered she had gone to the Continent... N-COUNT 2. An inquiry is an official investigation. The Democratic Party has called for an independent inquiry into the incident. N-COUNT 3. Inquiry is the process of asking about or investigating something in order to find out more about it. The investigation has suddenly switched to a new line of inquiry. 4. see also court of inquiry

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Interrogation, question, query, interrogatory. 2. Investigation, examination, research, scrutiny, study, exploration.

Moby Thesaurus

amassing evidence, assize, audit, bone of contention, canvass, catechism, catechizing, change of venue, check, close inquiry, consumer research, consumer-preference survey, court-martial, cross-examination, cross-interrogatory, cross-question, debating point, delving, demand, department of investigation, detection, detective work, enquiry, examination, exhaustive study, exploration, feeler, hearing, indagation, inquest, inquirendo, inquisition, inspection, interrogation, interrogative, interrogatory, investigation, investigative bureau, issue, jury trial, leader, leading question, legislative investigation, legwork, mistrial, moot point, opinion poll, perscrutation, point at issue, point in question, poll, probe, probing, problem, public-opinion poll, query, querying, quest, question, question at issue, question mark, questionary, questioning, questionnaire, quodlibet, research, scrutiny, search, sifting, sleuthing, study, survey, topic, trial, trial balloon, trial by jury, vexed question, witch-hunt