wh-question
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
11 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "wh-question", 11-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Wiktionary, and usage frequency ranked against an open word-frequency list covering the top 100,000 English words. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "wh-question" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "wh-question" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
wh-question is aEnglishnoun. It means: A question that is introduced by a wh-word (what, where, why, etc.) and cannot be answered by yes or no. Pronounced /ˈdʌbl̩juː eɪtʃ ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/.
Compare similar words
See how wh-question compares against similar English words.
Browse all word comparisons →| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wh-question |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈdʌbl̩juː eɪtʃ ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/ |
| Letters | 11 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for wh-question is 11 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdʌbl̩juː eɪtʃ ˈkwɛst͡ʃən/. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader.The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A question that is introduced by a wh-word (what, where, why, etc.) and cannot be answered by yes or no.".
No misspelling variants are generated for wh-question in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns.It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From the fact that many of the adverbs and pronouns that are used at the beginning of such sentences, such as what, when, which, who, and why, begin with wh. Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is wh-question, spelled W-H---Q-U-E-S-T-I-O-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1A question that is introduced by a wh-word (what, where, why, etc.) and cannot be answered by yes or no.
Etymology
From the fact that many of the adverbs and pronouns that are used at the beginning of such sentences, such as what, when, which, who, and why, begin with wh.
This word in other languages
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "wh-question"?
What does "wh-question" mean?
How do you pronounce "wh-question"?
What is the origin of the word "wh-question"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter W in our English index: