question mark

question mark (plural question marks)

1. (typography) The punctuation mark ⟨?⟩, used at the end of a sentence to indicate a question.
2. (figuratively, informal) A state of doubt or uncertainty.

   There’s a question mark over whether or not he’ll be fit for the next game.

   • 2018 July 25, A. A. Dowd, “Fallout may be the Most Breathlessly Intense Mission: Impossible Adventure Yet”, in The A.V. Club‎, archived from the original on 31 July 2018:

     For a while, the biggest question mark of allegiance is August Walker (Henry Cavill, subverting his man-of-steel screen presence), the brutish CIA tagalong feeding his superiors the theory that [Ethan] Hunt may really be going rogue after years of being left out in the cold by his handlers.

   • 2011 April 11, Phil McNulty, “Liverpool 3 - 0 Man City”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Dirk Kuyt sandwiched a goal in between Carroll's double as City endured a night of total misery, with captain Carlos Tevez limping off early on with a hamstring strain that puts a serious question mark over his participation in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United at Wembley.

3. Polygonia interrogationis, a North American nymphalid butterfly with a silver mark on the underside resembling a question mark.

• (punctuation mark): interrogation mark, interrogation point; eroteme; interrogative (archaic); interrogative-point (obsolete)

Punctuation