an instance of questioning
"there was a question about my training"
"we made inquiries of all those who were present"
The act of inquiring; a seeking of information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning.
"The school's inquiry into the missing funds revealed that several staff members had been asked to explain their financial records."
In plain English: An inquiry is simply asking questions to find out more information about something.
"The police launched an inquiry into the accident to determine what happened."
Usage: Use inquiry to describe a formal or official request for information, such as an investigation into a complaint or a structured survey. It often implies a more serious or systematic effort to gather facts than the casual act of simply asking a question.
The word inquiry comes from the Latin verb inquīrō, which means "I seek" or "I look for." It traveled into English through Middle English and Old French before being later respelled to match its original Latin form.