verb
inquire
ihn-KWEYE-uh
verb
1
To ask for information about something.
"She inquired about ticket prices at the front desk."
"He inquired whether the flight was delayed."
2
To carry out an official investigation into something.
"The committee will inquire into the cause of the outage."
How to Use Inquire
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishTo ask questions in order to find something out, sometimes formally.
UK vs US
Both "inquire" and "enquire" are used in British English, often with a slight distinction (enquire for casual asking, inquire for formal investigation); American English almost always uses "inquire" for both.
Common pairings
inquire about
inquire whether
inquire into
Word Forms
inquired past tense, inquires singular
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Etymology
From Latin inquirere, "to seek for" — in- plus quaerere, "to seek."