Enquire or inquire?
enquire is a verb meaning “British English form of inquire”; inquire is a verb meaning “To ask (about something)”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) inquire is about 3.0 times as common as enquire.
What is the difference between enquire and inquire?
| enquire | inquire | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb | verb |
| Meaning | BritishBritish English form of inquire | AustraliaCanadaUSTo ask (about something) To make an inquiry or an investigation |
| Example | He enquired about the availability of rental bicycles in the town | May I inquire to whom I have the honor of speaking? |
| Forms | enquires, enquiring, enquired | inquires, inquiring, inquired |
| Pronunciation | /ɛnˈkwaɪə/ /ɪn-/ /ɛnˈkwaɪɹ/ | /ɪnˈkwaɪə/ /ɪŋˈkwaɪə/ /ɪnˈkwaɪɹ/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 2.4 times per million words |
Sources: enquire and inquire in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of enquire and inquire
enquire
- 1
BritishBritish English form of inquire
He enquired about the availability of rental bicycles in the town
inquire
- 1
AustraliaCanadaUSTo ask (about something)
May I inquire to whom I have the honor of speaking?
- 2
To make an inquiry or an investigation
Police are already inquiring into the incident
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, enquire or inquire?
enquire appears about once in every 1 million words; inquire 2.4 times per million words.
enquire about once in every 1 million wordsinquire 2.4 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search enquire vs inquire?
“enquire vs inquire” is searched about 18,100 times a month on Google and 650 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“inquire vs enquire”, “enquire or inquire”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.