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) 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]:

     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)

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, UK) ( ‘ ’ ) ( “ ” )
• quotation marks (informal, US, Computing) ( " ) ( ' )

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

Translations

punctuation

• Albanian: pikëpyetje (sq) f
• Arabic: ؟ (?), عَلَامَة اِسْتِفْهَام‏‎ f (ʿalāmat istifhām), عَلَامَة سُؤَال‏‎ f (ʿalāmat suʾāl)
• Armenian:  ՞, հարցական նշան (harcʿakan nšan)
• Bengali: জিজ্ঞাসাচিহ্ন (jiggasacihn)
• Breton: pik-goulennata m
• Burmese: (symbol) း။
• 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
• 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: spørsmålstegn n
• Pashto: ؟‏‎
• Persian: ؟‏‎
• Polish: pytajnik 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

• Slovene: vprašaj (sl) m
• Southern Altai: суракту темдек (suraktu temdek)
• Spanish: signo de interrogación m
• Swedish: frågetecken (sv) n
• Turkish: soru işareti (tr)
• Udmurt: юан пус (juan pus)
• Urdu: ؟‏‎
• Volapük: säkamalül (vo)
• Welsh: gofynnod m, holnod m, marc cwestiwn m
• Yakut: ыйытыы бэлиэтэ (ıyıtıı beliete)
• Yiddish: פֿרעגצייכן‏‎ m (fregtseykhn)