question mark
/ˈkwɛstʃ(ə)n ˌmɑːk/
"question-mark" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“question mark” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The punctuation mark "?", used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
Corpus desk
Index EN-question-mark · question mark · English
question mark · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 13 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "Q" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | question mark |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkwɛstʃ(ə)n ˌmɑːk/ |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “question mark” in English
Rare enough to double-check
question mark is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈkwɛstʃ(ə)n ˌmɑːk/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for question mark in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. Our dataset records no confusable match here, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is question mark, spelled Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N- -M-A-R-K.
Definition
- 1The punctuation mark "?", used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
- 2A state of doubt or uncertainty.
- 3An enigmatic, inscrutable, or mysterious person or thing; an enigma, a riddle.
- 4Polygonia interrogationis, a North American nymphalid butterfly with a silver mark on the underside of its hindwing resembling a question mark (sense 1).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how question mark appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Do you see this curious-looking mark in the margin? It is a little crooked mark with a dot at the bottom of it. It is a question mark. It always comes at the end of questions.
When you come to a question mark, you must stop and rest. If the question may be answered by yes or no, your voice must rise on the last word before the question mark.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.