question mark

noun
1.
Also called interrogation point, interrogation mark. a mark indicating a question: usually, as in English, the mark (?) placed after a question.
2.
something unanswered or unknown:
His identity is still a question mark to most of us.
3.
an anglewing butterfly, Polygonia interrogationis, having silver spots shaped like a question mark on the underside of each hind wing.
Origin
1865-70
Examples from the web for question mark
  • He said the question mark after the headline figured in his decision.
  • It's a cardboard box with a question mark printed on it.
  • The contents appear as pages with a question mark on them.
  • The dash, semicolon, question mark and exclamation point go within quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only.
  • Move your cursor over a question mark near a controls name to display a help tip.
British Dictionary definitions for question mark

question mark

noun
1.
the punctuation mark ?, used at the end of questions and in other contexts where doubt or ignorance is implied
2.
this mark used for any other purpose, as to draw attention to a possible mistake, as in a chess commentary
3.
an element of doubt or uncertainty
question mark in Culture

question mark definition


A punctuation mark (?) that follows a direct question: “Is Ralph really seven feet tall?”

question mark in Technology
character
"?", ASCII character 63.
Common names: query; ITU-T: question mark; ques. Rare: whatmark; INTERCAL: what; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback.
Question mark is used, along with colon for C's lazy triadic "if" operator (similar to the IIF function in Visual Basic). The expression x?y:z evaluates x, then if x is true it returns y else it returns z.
In Unix shell file name patterns, question mark matches any single character.
(2003-06-17)