query

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• quæry (archaic)

Etymology

An anglicisation of quere, an obsolete variant form of Latin quaere, second-person singular present active imperative of quaerō (“seek, look for; ask”). Compare question.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkwɪəri/, /ˈkwɛri/, X-SAMPA: /"kwI@ri/, /"kwEri/
• Rhymes: -ɪəri, -ɛri

Noun

query (plural queries)

1. A question or inquiry.

   The teacher answered the student's query concerning biosynthesis.

2. A question mark.
   • Oliver Sacks, Awakenings

     She had written in her diary: "I don't think I am in a concentration-camp??????", the queries growing larger and more numerous till they covered the entire page […]

3. (computing, databases) A set of instructions passed to a database.

   The database admin switched on query logging for debugging purposes.

Derived terms

• query language
• subquery

Translations

question or inquiry

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 質問 (cmn), 质问 (cmn) (zhìwèn), 問題 (cmn), 问题 (cmn) (wèntí)

• Czech: dotaz (cs) m
• Danish: spørgsmål (da)
• Dutch: vraag (nl) f, verzoek (nl) n
• Esperanto: pridemando (eo)
• Estonian: päring (et)
• Finnish: kysymys (fi), kysely (fi), tiedustelu (fi)

• French: question (fr) f
• Japanese: 質問 (ja) (しつもん, shitsumon)
• Lojban: preti (jbo)
• Polish: pytanie (pl) n
• Portuguese: pergunta (pt) f
• Russian: запрос (ru) (zaprós) m, вопрос (ru) (voprós) m
• Serbo-Croatian: upit (sh) m
• Spanish: consulta (es) f

computing: set of instructions passed to a database

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 查詢 (cmn), 查询 (cmn) (cháxún)

• Czech: dotaz (cs) m
• Dutch: verzoek (nl) n
• Esperanto: informpeto (eo)
• Estonian: päring (et)
• Finnish: kysely (fi)
• French: requête (fr) f

• German: Abfrage (de) f
• Hungarian: lekérdezés (hu)
• Japanese: クエリ (ja) (kueri), 問い合わせ (ja) (といあわせ, toiawase)
• Polish: zapytanie (pl) n
• Russian: запрос (ru) (zaprós) m
• Serbo-Croatian: upit (sh) m
• Spanish: consulta (es) f

Verb

query (third-person singular simple present queries, present participle querying, simple past and past participle queried)

1. (transitive) To ask, inquire.
2. (intransitive) To ask a question.
3. (transitive) To question or call into doubt.
4. (computing, databases) To pass a query to a database to retrieve information.
   • 1999, Luciano Floridi, Philosophy and computing: an introduction, page 104:

     Linked tables can be accessed, queried, combined and reorganised much more flexibly and in a number of ways that may not be immediately predictable when the database is under construction.

Translations

inquire

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 詢問 (cmn) (hsunwen)

• Dutch: vragen (nl), bevragen (nl)
• Esperanto: pridemandi (eo)

ask a question

• Dutch: (zich (nl)) informeren (nl)

• Polish: pytać (pl)
• Spanish: preguntar (es)

question

• Dutch: in vraag stellen (nl), betwijfelen (nl)
• Esperanto: pridemandi (eo)

• Polish: kwestionować (pl)
• Spanish: cuestionar (es)

computing: search database

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 查詢 (cmn) (ch'ahsun)

• Dutch: bevragen (nl), queryen (nl)
• Esperanto: informpeti (eo)

• German: abfragen (de)
• Polish: wysłać zapytanie (pl)
• Spanish: consultar (es)

Related terms

• querent
• question