inquiry

a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

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World English Dictionary

inquiry or enquiry (ɪnˈkwaɪərɪ)

—n , pl -ries
1.	a request for information; a question
2.	an investigation, esp a formal one conducted into a matter of public concern by a body constituted for that purpose by a government, local authority, or other organization

enquiry or enquiry

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

inquiry

mid-15c., enquery, from enquere (see inquire). Respelled to conform to Latin from mid-16c.

Example sentences

Third, the clearest boundary line involves the need to maintain an atmosphere

in which critical inquiry is possible.

Where animal instinct ends and reasoning or feelings begin is an active line of

scientific inquiry.

Please join us, and let me know about any ideas for lines of inquiry.

Hence the true scientist should always encourage inquiry in all directions.

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Matching Quote

"Reasoning is compared to understanding as movement is to rest, or acquisition to possession.... Since movement always proceeds from something immovable, and ends in something at rest, hence it is that human reasoning, in the order of inquiry and discovery, proceeds from certain things absolutely understood—namely, the first principles; and, again, in the order of judgment, returns by analysis to first principles, in the light of which it examines what it has found. Now it is clear that rest and movement are not to be referred to different powers, but to one and the same."

-Thomas Aquinas