Ask, Question, Interrogate, Query, Inquire, Catechize, Quiz and Examine mean to address a person in an attempt to elicit information.
Ask is the general or colorless term for putting a question.
- ask and you will find
- ask the price of an article
- ask your brother if he will join us
- none of them understood how to ask the question which they were trying to answer
—Ellis
Question usually suggests asking one question after another as in teaching or in searching out the ramifications of a topic.
- question a suspect at length
- Socrates preferred questioning his disciples to lecturing them
Interrogate stresses formal or systematic questioning.
- they examined many witnesses . . . whom they interrogated, not only upon the express words of the statute, but upon all . . . collateral or presumptive circumstances
—Burnet
Query usually strongly implies a desire for authoritative information or the resolution of a doubt.
- should not one query whether he had not those proofs in his hands antecedent to the cabinet?
—Walpole
It is specifically so used by proofreaders.
- do not query a misspelled word in ordinary text . . . . Never query style to the author
—Manual of Style
Inquire has for its fundamental implication a search for the facts or the truth; only when it distinctly implies in addition to such an intention the asking of a question or questions does it come into comparison with the other words of this group.
- inquire the best route to New York City
- inquire when the public library would be open
- it was soon evident that this was the ruddleman who had inquired for her
—Hardy
Catechize adds to interrogate the suggestion of an aim to elicit a certain kind of answer. Often the answers expected are definite statements of doctrine already phrased in a catechism (a book supplying questions and answers concerning the doctrines of a church).
- catechize a candidate for the ministry
In extended use, however, there is often the implication of a desire to lead the person who is questioned into making answers that are selfcondemnatory or that will reveal his weaknesses.
- it was their policy to catechize every candidate for a doctor’s degree at the beginning of his advanced studies.
Quiz implies an informal but often thoroughgoing interrogation (as of a class) to determine how well a series of lectures has been understood or (as of a murder suspect) to determine the facts of the case.
Examine implies interrogation or catechizing for the purpose of drawing answers that indicate how much or how little a person knows (as from students when their fitness for promotion is to be decided, from candidates for a position when it is necessary to determine the extent of their preparation and the adequacy of their training, from those giving testimony in a trial, or when the lawyers on each side try to elicit information of value to their clients).
- the students in this course are examined at the end of the year
- no candidate for a civil service position is considered until he has been examined with all other candidates and given a satisfactory rating
- it took the whole day to examine and to cross-examine the principal witness