answer

[ an-ser, ahn- ]

/ ˈæn sər, ˈɑn- /

Save This Word!

See synonyms for: answer / answered / answering / answers on Thesaurus.com

noun

a spoken or written reply or response to a question, request, letter, etc.: He sent an answer to my letter promptly.

a correct response to a question asked to test one's knowledge.

an equivalent or approximation: a singing group that tried to be the French answer to the Beatles.

an action serving as a reply or response: The answer was a volley of fire.

a solution to a problem, especially in mathematics.

a reply to a charge or accusation.

Law. a pleading in which a party responds to his or her opponent's statement of position, especially the defendant's reply to the plaintiff's complaint.

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)

to speak or write in response; make answer; reply.

to respond by an act or motion: He answered with a nod. The champion answered with a right to the jaw.

to act or suffer in consequence of (usually followed by for).

to be or declare oneself responsible or accountable (usually followed by for): I will answer for his safety.

to be satisfactory or serve (usually followed by for): His cane answered for a baseball bat.

to conform; correspond (usually followed by to): The prisoner answered to the description issued by the police.

verb (used with object)

to speak or write in response to; reply to: to answer a person; to answer a question.

to act or move in response to: Answer the doorbell. We answered their goal with two quick goals of our own.

to solve or present a solution of.

to serve or fulfill: This will answer the purpose.

to discharge (a responsibility, claim, debt, etc.).

to conform or correspond to; be similar or equivalent to: This dog answers your description.

to atone for; make amends for.

to reply or respond favorably to: I would like to answer your request but am unable to do so.

Verb Phrases

answer back, to reply impertinently or rudely: Well-behaved children do not answer back when scolded.

Idioms about answer

answer the helm, Nautical. (of a vessel) to maneuver or remain steady according to the position of the rudder.

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

synonym study for answer

1. 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.

historical usage of answer

In English, the verb answer derives from the noun, though both are equally old and occur in Old English translations of the Gospels. The Old English noun is andswaru “response to a question,” composed of the Old English prefix and- “against, contra-” and -swer with two meanings: the legal sense of “a swearing on oath, as in giving testimony” and the neutral, nonlegal sense of “a reply, a response to a question.” In both its legal and general senses, Old English andswaru parallels the Latin verb respondēre, originally a legal term meaning “to make a formal response,” and then used in the general sense “to answer, reply.”

Words nearby answer

ANSI, ansible, Anson, Ansonia, anstoss, answer, answerable, answerback, answer for, answering machine, answering pennant

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use answer in a sentence

The BLS says there is no right answer for when to start counting.
Vice presidential debate: Highlights and fact-checks|Colby Itkowitz, Anne Gearan, Matt Viser, Felicia Sonmez, John Wagner|October 8, 2020|Washington Post
The answer is we’d have to do something about burning fossil fuels.
The Greening of Antarctica - Issue 90: Something Green|Marissa Grunes|October 7, 2020|Nautilus
For Shu Yang, professor of material science at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Center for Analyzing Evolved Structures as Optimized Products, the answer to this urban heat problem is biomimetic design on the city scale.
Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Environmentalism - Issue 90: Something Green|Anastasia Bendebury & Michael Shilo DeLay|October 7, 2020|Nautilus
Looking at the corresponding answers can also tell you about what kind of content Google considers worthy of surfacing as well as who your competitors may be.
‘People Also Ask’ boxes: Tips for ranking, optimizing and tracking|George Nguyen|October 7, 2020|Search Engine Land

The answer to this age-old question could reveal a little bit about your personality, some research shows.
What being a cat- or dog-person says about you|Kat Eschner|October 7, 2020|Popular-Science
We need to recover and grow the idea that the proper answer to bad speech is more and better speech.
How the PC Police Threaten Free Speech|Nick Gillespie|January 9, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Take the chief metric of the war in Vietnam—body counts, which ultimately did not answer whether the strategy was working.
Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Many People It’s Killed in the ISIS War|Nancy A. Youssef|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
This reporter knocked at the Wilkins home on Tuesday morning but received neither an answer nor the business end of a shotgun.
The 7-Year-Old Plane Crash Survivor’s Brutal Journey Through the Woods|James Higdon|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
They already know the answer, but they know by feigning ignorance they can create all this debate about it.
Patton Oswalt on Fighting Conservatives With Satire|William O’Connor|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The best answer Sutton offers is a statement by the preacher John Roach Stratton back in 1918.
The Evangelical Apocalypse Is All Your Fault|Jay Michaelson|January 4, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The Goliath wouldn't answer; the Dublin said the force was coming off, and we could not get into touch with the soldiers at all.
Gallipoli Diary, Volume I|Ian Hamilton
I stooped down and asked him how he felt himself, but he made no answer, and evidently did not recollect me.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXIX. January, 1844. Vol. LV.|Various
To answer the last question, Why people are not equally supplied?
The Life and Most Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner (1801)|Daniel Defoe
The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions, which I had no inclination to answer.
Gulliver's Travels|Jonathan Swift
Hys ignored the acid tone of her answer and sat down on the couch next to them.
Sense of Obligation|Henry Maxwell Dempsey (AKA Harry Harrison)

British Dictionary definitions for answer

answer

/ (ˈɑːnsə) /

noun

a reply, either spoken or written, as to a question, request, letter, or article

a reaction or response in the form of an actiondrunkenness was his answer to disappointment

a solution, esp of a mathematical problem

law

a party's written reply to his opponent's interrogatories
(in divorce law) the respondent's written reply to the petition

a musical phrase that follows the subject of a fugue, reproducing it a fifth higher or a fourth lower

verb

(when tr, may take a clause as object) to reply or respond (to) by word or actto answer a question; he answered; to answer the door; he answered that he would come

(tr) to reply correctly to; solve or attempt to solveI could answer only three questions

(intr usually foll by to) to respond or react (to a stimulus, command, etc)the steering answers to the slightest touch

(tr) to pay off (a debt, obligation, etc); discharge

(when intr, often foll by for) to meet the requirements (of); be satisfactory (for); serve the purpose (of)this will answer his needs; this will answer for a chisel

(when intr, often foll by to) to match or correspond (esp in the phrase answer (or answer to) the description)

(tr) to give a defence or refutation of (a charge) or in (an argument)

Word Origin for answer

Old English andswaru an answer; related to Old Frisian ondser, Old Norse andsvar; see swear

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

answer

OTHER WORDS FOR answer

Idioms about answer

Origin of answer

synonym study for answer

historical usage of answer

OTHER WORDS FROM answer

Words nearby answer

How to use answer in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for answer

Word Origin for answer

Other Idioms and Phrases with answer

answer

OTHER WORDS FOR answer

Idioms about answer

Origin of answer

synonym study for answer

historical usage of answer

OTHER WORDS FROM answer

Words nearby answer

Words related to answer

How to use answer in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for answer

Word Origin for answer

Other Idioms and Phrases with answer