answer
Americannoun
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a spoken or written reply or response to a question, request, letter, etc..
He sent an answer to my letter promptly.
- Synonyms:
- riposte
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a correct response to a question asked to test one's knowledge.
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an equivalent or approximation.
The band tried to be the French answer to the Beatles.
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an action serving as a reply or response.
The answer was a volley of fire.
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a solution to a problem, especially in mathematics.
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a reply to a charge or accusation.
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Law. a pleading in which a party responds to the opponent's statement of position, especially the defendant's reply to the plaintiff's complaint.
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Music. the entrance of a fugue subject, usually on the dominant, either slightly altered or transposed exactly after each presentation in the tonic.
verb (used without object)
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to speak or write in response; make answer; reply.
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to respond by an act or motion.
He answered with a nod.
The champion answered with a right to the jaw.
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to act or suffer in consequence of (usually followed byfor ).
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to be or declare oneself responsible or accountable (usually followed byfor ).
I will answer for his safety.
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to be satisfactory or serve (usually followed byfor ).
His cane answered for a baseball bat.
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to conform; correspond (usually followed byto ).
The prisoner answered to the description issued by the police.
verb (used with object)
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to speak or write in response to; reply to.
to answer a person;
to answer a question.
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to act or move in response to.
Answer the doorbell. We answered their goal with two quick goals of our own.
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to solve or present a solution of.
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to serve or fulfill.
This will answer the purpose.
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to discharge (a responsibility, claim, debt, etc.).
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to conform or correspond to; be similar or equivalent to.
This dog answers your description.
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to atone for; make amends for.
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to reply or respond favorably to.
I would like to answer your request but am unable to do so.
verb phrase
idioms
noun
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a reply, either spoken or written, as to a question, request, letter, or article
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a reaction or response in the form of an action
drunkenness was his answer to disappointment
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a solution, esp of a mathematical problem
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law
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a party's written reply to his opponent's interrogatories
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(in divorce law) the respondent's written reply to the petition
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a musical phrase that follows the subject of a fugue, reproducing it a fifth higher or a fourth lower
verb
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(when tr, may take a clause as object) to reply or respond (to) by word or act
to answer a question
he answered
to answer the door
he answered that he would come
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(tr) to reply correctly to; solve or attempt to solve
I could answer only three questions
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to respond or react (to a stimulus, command, etc)
the steering answers to the slightest touch
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(tr) to pay off (a debt, obligation, etc); discharge
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to meet the requirements (of); be satisfactory (for); serve the purpose (of)
this will answer his needs
this will answer for a chisel
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to match or correspond (esp in the phrase answer (or answer to ) the description )
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(tr) to give a defence or refutation of (a charge) or in (an argument)
Usage
Spelling tips for answer The word answer is hard to spell because the w is silent. Answer is pronounced [ an-ser ]. How to spell answer: First, remember that answer has a silent w. To remember that you should place the silent w immediately after the s, remember that you can abbreviate silent w as sw.
Synonym Usage
Answer, rejoinder, reply, response, retort all mean words used to meet a question, remark, charge, etc. An answer is a return remark: an answer giving the desired information. A rejoinder is a quick, usually clever answer or remark made in reply to another's comment, not to a question. Reply usually refers to a direct or point-by-point response to a suggestion, proposal, question, or the like: a reply to a letter. A response often suggests an answer to an appeal, exhortation, etc., or an expected or fixed reply: a response to inquiry; a response in a church service. A retort implies a keen, prompt answer, especially one that turns a remark upon the person who made it: a sharp retort.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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answerernoun
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answerlessadjective
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unansweredadjective
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unansweringadjective
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well-answeredadjective
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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answersimple
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answerssimple
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have answeredperfect
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has answeredperfect
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am answeringprogressive
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are answeringprogressive
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is answeringprogressive
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have been answeringperfect progressive
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has been answeringperfect progressive
Past
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answeredsimple
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had answeredperfect
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was answeringprogressive
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were answeringprogressive
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had been answeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of answer
First recorded before 900; Middle English andswerien, Old English andswerian, andswarian, derivative of andswaru “an answer,” equivalent to and- “opposite, facing” ( cf. and, along) + unattested Germanic swarō, derivative of swear
Explanation
An answer is a response to a question, problem, or need. If you don’t get enough sleep, quitting your late-night TV habit might be the answer. Answer, which can be a noun or a verb, comes from the Old English for swear, and the word originally meant an official, sworn response to a legal charge. We don’t have to be sworn in when we answer a question, however, we just need to reply. Answer also means "solution." Is the answer to poverty better education? If you meet a requirement, you answer it. If you are obligated to someone, you answer to him.
Vocabulary lists containing answer
Unit 8
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Spelling Practice, Unit 7
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Spelling Practice 3, Unit 4
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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.
See Examples For:
The company set rules for what the models wouldn’t answer, which the company calls “refusals.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
The right answer is different for every investor.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 25, 2026
The answer is that the universe can expand faster than light.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
An investigation might not come up with a singular answer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
I never liked when Grandma said that, because it usually meant I’d never get the answer.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
He's devoted his life to this case - even befriending Megrahi during his quest to find answers.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, OpenAI’s models became convinced that Hugging Face held answers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
As veterinarians seek answers, mate Shadow fuels questions about whether he’s “seeing” another female.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
“AI is known to give you answers you want,” said Ryan Marshall, a New York City-based chartered financial analyst.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
Cracking joints do not explain specific accurate answers like those given to James Fenimore Cooper.
From "American Spirits" by Barb Rosenstock
This week Quentin Fottrell — The Moneyist — answered questions from a credit-card borrower who would like to have her cake and eat it too.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
After the jury foreman, when asked “How say you?” answered “Guilty,” 34 times, Trump turned to face the back of the room, looking uncharacteristically stricken.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
It said the school leaned on how applicants answered “hardship” questions — which ask students how they overcame disadvantages — as a proxy for race.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
If there is a question to be answered about England's side, it is who will fill the seamer slots in the XI.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
Mr. Palmer struggled to stay calm as he answered the questions.
From "Earthquake Terror" by Peg Kehret
He wasn’t answering my question; he was correcting it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
This means we can expect more clips of Burnham in casual mode, chatting into a handheld phone or answering questions on policy in an apparently spontaneous fashion on X, Instagram or TikTok.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
“For the safety of staff and the community, we’re keeping the store closed for the time being,” an employee said in a recording on its answering machine Sunday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
The hard thing about answering this question is that workers whose jobs are now exposed to AI have in the past typically had different end-of-career patterns than others.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 17, 2026
“I am still not answering a question like that.”
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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.
