open question

British  

noun

1. a matter which is undecided

2. a question that cannot be answered with a yes or no but requires a developed answer

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open question Idioms  

1. An unresolved issue, one that has not been finally determined. For example, Whether the town should pave all the unpaved roads remains an open question. In the mid-1800s this term acquired a specific meaning in the British Parliament, that is, “an issue on which members may vote independently, without respect to their party affiliation.”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

open question

“The open question remains: Is she the preferred candidate of African Americans? We’ll see in the general.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

How seriously to take the historical existence of cat pianos, according to the authors, is an open question.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026

It is an open question how Yale’s medical school can survive in its present form without income provided by federally supported research.

From Slate ● Jul. 30, 2026

Whether that strategy would pay off is still an open question.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 25, 2026

Yet geography obviously has some effect on history; the open question concerns how much effect, and whether geography can account for history’s broad pattern.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond