question mark

See also: question-mark

English

WOTD – 24 September 2020

Pronunciation

A question mark (sense 1)

The question mark (Polygonia interrogationis; sense 4). The photograph immediately above shows the silver mark shaped like a question mark (sense 1) on the underside of the butterfly’s hindwing.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛstʃ(ə)n ˌmɑːk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkwɛstʃ(ə)n ˌmɑɹk/, /ˈkwɛʃ-/
• Hyphenation: quest‧ion mark

Noun

question mark (plural question marks)

1. (typography) The punctuation mark "?", used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.

   Synonyms: eroteme, interrogation mark, interrogation point, interrogative (archaic), interrogative-point (obsolete)

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.

   • 2011 April 11, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 3 – 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 2 August 2019:

     Dirk Kuyt sandwiched a goal in between [Andy] 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.

   • 2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club‎^[2], archived from the original on 31 July 2018:

     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 [Ethan] Hunt may really be going rogue after years of being left out in the cold by his handlers.

3. (figuratively, informal) An enigmatic, inscrutable, or mysterious person or thing; an enigma, a riddle.

   Synonyms: mystery, puzzle

4. Polygonia interrogationis, a North American nymphalid butterfly with a silver mark on the underside of its hindwing resembling a question mark (sense 1).

Derived terms

• question-mark (attributive form)
• question-marked (adjective)

Translations

punctuation mark

• Albanian: pikëpyetje (sq) f
• Arabic: ؟ (ar) (?), عَلَامَة اِسْتِفْهَام‎ f (ʿalāma(t) istifhām)
• Armenian:  ՞, հարցական նշան (hy) (harcʿakan nšan)
• Azerbaijani: sual işarəsi
• Bashkir: һорау билдәһе (horaw bildähe)
• 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
• Faroese: spurnartekn n
• Finnish: kysymysmerkki (fi)
• French: point d'interrogation (fr) m
• Georgian: კითხვის ნიშანი (ḳitxvis nišani)
• German: Fragezeichen (de) n
• Greek: ; (el) (?), ερωτηματικό (el) n (erotimatikó)
• Hindi: प्रश्नचिह्न (praśnacihna)
• Hungarian: kérdőjel (hu)
• Icelandic: spurningarmerki n
• Ido: questionopunto (io)
• 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), เครื่องหมายคำถาม (th) (krʉ̂ʉang-mǎai-kam-tǎam), เครื่องหมายสงสัย (th) (krʉ̂ʉang-mǎai-sǒng-sǎi)
• Turkish: soru işareti (tr)
• Udmurt: юан пус (juan pus)
• Ukrainian: знак пита́ння m (znak pytánnja), пита́льний знак m (pytálʹnyj znak)
• Urdu: ؟‎
• Vietnamese: dấu hỏi
• Volapük: säkamalül (vo)
• Welsh: gofynnod m, holnod m, marc cwestiwn m
• Yakut: ыйытыы бэлиэтэ (ıyıtıı beliete)
• Yiddish: פֿרעגצייכן‎ m (fregtseykhn)

state of doubt or uncertainty

enigmatic, inscrutable, or mysterious person or thing

Polygonia interrogationis

• French: polygone à queue violacée m
• Japanese: ギモンフタテハ

• Tamil: கேள்விக் குறியன் (kēḷvik kuṟiyaṉ)

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 (   )

Further reading

• question mark on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Polygonia interrogationis on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Polygonia interrogationis on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• “question mark, n.” in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press.