indirect question
Britishnoun
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“As a talent evaluator, if the indirect question is, ‘Is Diego good enough to play at the top level in Europe?’
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 20, 2021
At the Toronto news conference, a moderator paid by Searchlight mostly kept the focus on the movie, asking just one indirect question about the assault.
From Washington Post • Nov. 6, 2017
Although direct questions about what was coming were obviously impermissible, an indirect question seemed fairly within the rules.
From The Extra Day by Blackwood, Algernon
The indirect question naturally lacks the force of the direct one, but it may be employed when a less striking form of beginning is desired.
From How To Write Special Feature Articles A Handbook for Reporters, Correspondents and Free-Lance Writers Who Desire to Contribute to Popular Magazines and Magazine Sections of Newspapers by Bleyer, Willard Grosvenor
Invent an indirect question and show how it would naturally be inflected.
From The Art of Public Speaking by Carnagey, Dale
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.