Link Centre Dictionary

inquiry

in·quiry

UK/ɪnˈkwaɪəɹi/ US/ɪŋ-/ fairly common

noun

1.

a search for knowledge

  • “their pottery deserves more research than it has received”
2.

an instance of questioning

  • “there was a question about my training”
  • “we made inquiries of all those who were present”

Origin

From Middle English enquery, from the Old French verb enquerre, from Latin inquīrō, composed of in- (“in, at, on; into”) + quaerō (“to 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.

Phrases

  • contextual inquiry
  • court of inquiry
  • disciplinary inquiry
  • domestic inquiry
  • freedom of inquiry
  • grounded narrative inquiry
  • hard inquiry
  • inquiry-based learning

Related words

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.