question mark

See also: question-mark

English

question mark in a grey ring

Noun

question mark (plural question marks)

1. (typography) The punctuation mark ⟨?⟩, used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
2. (figuratively, informal) A state of doubt or uncertainty.

   There’s a question mark over whether or not he’ll be fit for the next game.

   • 25 July 2018, A.A Dowd, AV Club Fallout may be the most breathlessly intense Mission: Impossible adventure yet[1]

     For a while, the biggest question mark of allegiance is August Walker (Henry Cavill, subverting his man-of-steel screen presence), the brutish CIA tagalong feeding his superiors the theory that Hunt may really be going rogue after years of being left out in the cold by his handlers.

   • 2011 April 11, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 3 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Dirk Kuyt sandwiched a goal in between Carroll's double as City endured a night of total misery, with captain Carlos Tevez limping off early on with a hamstring strain that puts a serious question mark over his participation in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley.

Synonyms

• (punctuation mark): interrogation mark, interrogation point; eroteme; interrogative (archaic); interrogative-point (obsolete)

Translations

punctuation

• Albanian: pikëpyetje (sq) f
• Arabic: ؟ (?), عَلَامَة اِسْتِفْهَام‎‎ f (ʿalāmat istifhām), عَلَامَة سُؤَال‎‎ f (ʿalāmat suʾāl)
• Armenian:  ՞, հարցական նշան (hy) (harcʿakan nšan)
• Belarusian: пыта́льнік m (pytálʹnik), пыта́льны знак m (pytálʹny znak)
• Bengali: জিজ্ঞাসাচিহ্ন (jiggasacihn)
• Breton: pik-goulennata m
• Bulgarian: въпроси́телен знак m (vǎprosítelen znak)
• Burmese: (symbol) း။ (my)
• Catalan: interrogant (ca), signe d'interrogació m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: ？, 問號 (zh), 问号 (zh) (wènhào)

• Cornish: nos kwestyon m
• Crimean Tatar: sual işareti
• Czech: otazník (cs) m
• Danish: spørgsmålstegn (da) n
• Dutch: vraagteken (nl) n
• Esperanto: demandosigno
• Finnish: kysymysmerkki (fi)
• French: point d'interrogation (fr) m
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Fragezeichen (de) n
• Greek: ; (el) (?), ερωτηματικό (el) n (erotimatikó)
• Hindi: प्रश्नचिह्न (praśnacihna)
• Hungarian: kérdőjel (hu)
• Icelandic: spurningarmerki n
• Ido: questionopunto
• Indonesian: tanda tanya (id)
• Irish: comhartha ceiste m
• Italian: punto interrogativo (it) m, punto di domanda m
• Japanese: ？ (ja), 疑問符 (ja) (ぎもんふ, gimonfu)
• Kalmyk: сургч темдг (surgç temdg)
• Khakas: сурығ танығы (surığ tanığı)
• Khmer: ល្បះសំនួរ (lbah sɑmnuə)

• Korean: ？, 물음표 (ko) (mureumpyo)
• Latvian: jautājuma zīme f
• Lithuanian: klaustukas (lt)
• Luxembourgish: Froenzeechen n
• Macedonian: пра́шалник m (prášalnik)
• Malay: tanda soal
• Maori: tohu pātai
• Norman: point d'tchestchionn'nie m (Jersey), mèrque dé tchestchion f (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: spørsmålstegn (no) n

• Pashto: ؟‎‎
• Persian: ؟‎‎, علامت سؤال‎‎ (fa) ('alâmat-e so'âl)
• Polish: pytajnik (pl) m, znak zapytania (pl) m
• Portuguese: ponto de interrogação (pt) m
• Romanian: semn de întrebare
• Russian: вопроси́тельный знак (ru) m (voprosítelʹnyj znak), знак вопро́са (ru) m (znak voprósa)
• Scottish Gaelic: comharradh-ceiste m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: упитник m

  Roman: ùpitnīk (sh) m

• Slovak: otáznik m
• Slovene: vprašaj (sl) m
• Southern Altai: суракту темдек (suraktu temdek)
• Spanish: signo de interrogación m
• Swedish: frågetecken (sv) n
• Thai: ปรัศนี (th) (bpràt-sà-nii)
• Turkish: soru işareti (tr)
• Udmurt: юан пус (juan pus)
• Ukrainian: знак пита́ння m (znak pytánnja), пита́льний знак m (pytálʹnyj znak)
• Urdu: ؟‎‎
• Volapük: säkamalül (vo)
• Welsh: gofynnod m, holnod m, marc cwestiwn m
• Yakut: ыйытыы бэлиэтэ (ıyıtıı beliete)
• Yiddish: פֿרעגצייכן‎‎ m (fregtseykhn)

See also

Punctuation

• apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ )
• braces ( { } )
• brackets ( [ ] )
• colon ( : )
• comma ( , )

• dashes ( ‒ ) ( – ) ( — ) ( ― )
• ellipsis ( … )
• exclamation mark ( ! )
• fraction slash ( ⁄ )
• guillemets ( « » )

• hyphen ( - ) ( ‐ )
• interpunct ( · )
• interrobang (rare) ( ‽ )
• parentheses ( ( ) )
• period (US) or full stop (UK) ( . )

• question mark ( ? )
• quotation marks (formal) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” )
• quotation marks (informal, Computing) ( " ) ( ' )

• semicolon ( ; )
• slash (US) or stroke (UK) ( / )
• space (   )