| 1. | Also called interrogation point, interrogation mark. a mark indicating a question: usually, as in English, the mark (?) placed after a question. |
| 2. | something unanswered or unknown: His identity is still a question mark to most of us. |
| 3. | an anglewing butterfly, Polygonia interrogationis, having silver spots shaped like a question mark on the underside of each hind wing. |
| question mark n. A punctuation symbol (?) written at the end of a sentence or phrase to indicate a direct question. Also called interrogation point. |
A punctuation mark (?) that follows a direct question: “Is Ralph really seven feet tall?”
question mark character
"?", ASCII character 63.
Common names: query; ITU-T: question mark; ques. Rare: whatmark; INTERCAL: what; wildchar; huh; hook; buttonhook; hunchback.
Question mark is used, along with colon for C's lazy triadic "if" operator (similar to the IIF function in Visual Basic). The expression x?y:z evaluates x, then if x is true it returns y else it returns z.
In Unix shell file name patterns, question mark matches any single character.
(2003-06-17)