ask implies no more than the putting of a question.
ask for directions
question usually suggests the asking of series of questions.
questioned them about every detail of the trip
interrogate suggests formal or official systematic questioning.
the prosecutor interrogated the witness all day
query implies a desire for authoritative information or confirmation.
queried a librarian about the book
inquire implies a searching for facts or for truth often specifically by asking questions.
began to inquire of friends and teachers what career she should pursue
Example Sentences
Noun I have a query about my order. The librarian responded to my query. Verb They conducted a survey in which several hundred people were queried about their dietary habits. it seems odd that someone would want two stoves, so you'd better query that order
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
For site search, this means implementing a solution that can create relevancy and leverage data to deliver personalized results for every single query. Roland Gossage, Forbes, 26 Aug. 2022 Disney did not immediately respond to a query seeking comment. Brian Steinberg, Variety, 15 Aug. 2022 Biden’s query to Deng back then probed the boundaries of the tentative partnership. Michael Schuman, The Atlantic, 11 Aug. 2022 The response to Landry’s online query and the stagnant nature of what was going on around her inspired her to act. Jevon Phillips, Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2022 Everything from shipping containers to database query languages relies on open standards. Alex Salkever, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2022 One specific query emerged over a certain object held in the hand of Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower on the Game of Thrones prequel. Nick Romano, EW.com, 15 July 2022 As a university professor, this is the sort of query that often comes my way.CNN, 14 July 2022 When these quickies started rolling in, Sears would work all night if necessary to attend to each knotty query. Catherine Musemeche, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 July 2022
Verb
This compares with the public nature of the Bitcoin ledger, where anyone can query any Bitcoin transaction and view its address. Rufas Kamau, Forbes, 11 Aug. 2022 With the proper resources, health departments can query immunization registry data and electronic medical records and notify parents of children who need to be vaccinated. Sallie Permar And Jay K. Varma, STAT, 27 Aug. 2022 James Heath of the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle focuses his research on identifying factors that would put patients at risk of long Covid, applying multi-omic tools to query blood samples, electronic health records, and questionnaires. Elizabeth Cooney, STAT, 23 July 2022 Development teams can query, transform, or create views across one or more collections, MongoDB clusters and storage buckets. Adrian Bridgwater, Forbes, 8 June 2022 Over the course of several weeks, The Republic attempted to query all Republican candidates for attorney general on Trump's endorsement and whether each believed that Biden had legitimately won Arizona in 2020. Tara Kavaler, The Arizona Republic, 11 May 2022 Analysts are expected to query MetLife for more detail about Covid-19 trends on Thursday, during the company’s earnings call. Leslie Scism, WSJ, 4 May 2022 Then, in its infinite processing power, it can’t be bothered even to query Wikipedia about West Virginia’s political trends. Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 15 Feb. 2022 These reports are usually created by experts within the company who query its supply chain and run the data through sophisticated models. Tim De Chant, Ars Technica, 18 Mar. 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
alteration of earlier quere, from Latin quaere, imperative of quaerere to ask