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Allin

inquest

nounattested in dialogue

  • //ˈɪŋkwɛst//

A formal investigation, often held before a jury, especially one into the cause of a death

noun

  1. 1

    A formal investigation, often held before a jury, especially one into the cause of a death

    The inquest on keeper Davidson was duly held, and at the commencement seemed likely to cause Tony Palliser less anxiety than he had expected.

    However, the 'accidental death' verdict of the jury in the inquest into the Croydon tram accident of November 2016 is the latest episode in a saga that seems likely to prevent the full story of this eminently preventable disaster from ever being exposed.

  2. 2

    An inquiry, typically into an undesired outcome

  3. 3

    The jury hearing such an inquiry, and the result of the inquiry

  4. 4

    obsoleteenquiry; quest; search

    the laborious and vexatious inquest that the soul must make after science

    Hauing of late by diligent inquest, Prouided him a sword of meanest sort

  5. 5

    Prosecutorial proceeding on whether or not a warrantless arrestee is charged with an offense.

Etymology

From Middle English enquest, from Old French enqueste (Modern French enquête), from Vulgar Latin inquirere, or from Medieval Latin inquesta < in + Latin quaesita.

Forms

plural
inquests
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).