burning question

Idioms  

1. An urgent or crucial issue under heated discussion. For example, Real estate taxes are always a burning question for the town leaders. This term has exact equivalents in French (question brûlante) and German (brennende Frage). [Mid-1800s]

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Example Sentences

Tuchel will rightly say Uruguay and Japan are the tough tests England required to tune up for the World Cup, but the burning question is still the same and has not been answered.

From BBC

The burning question is: what's different this time?

From BBC

To help answer that burning question, Consumer Reports and the Strategic Resource Group, a New York-based consumer goods and retail consulting firm, compared food prices at over 30 retailers across six metro areas to determine the most and least expensive supermarket chains in the United States.

From Salon

He did have one burning question, however, that he simply could not hold in.

From Literature

Travelers hunt for regional souvenirs, soothe their homesickness and investigate a burning question: Is the hot dog different?

From The Wall Street Journal