ask
/ɑːsk/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Northern England/ask/
ask verb: to request (information, or an answer to a question).
Verb
ask (third-person singular simple present asks, present participle asking, simple past and past participle asked)
- To request (information, or an answer to a question).
- I asked her age.
- I didn't know the answer so I asked.
- To request or enquire of (a person).
- I asked her (for) her age.
- I’m going to ask this lady (for) directions.
- To request (an item or service) (see also ask for).
- to ask for a second helping at dinner
- to ask for help with homework
- To request (someone to do something).
- Emma asked Jim to close his eyes.
- To request permission (to do something).
- She asked to see the doctor.
- Did you ask to use the car?
- To put forward (a question) to be answered.
- to ask a question
- to ask a riddle
- To require, demand, claim, or expect, whether by way of remuneration or return, or as a matter of necessity.
- What price are you asking for the house?
- It’s asking a lot of this old car to make it all the way up to Scotland.
- To invite.
- Don’t ask them to the wedding.
- To indirectly encourage or make more likely (an undesirable outcome).
- Walking around with such an expensive watch is asking to be mugged.
- To publish in church for marriage; said of both the banns and the persons.
- To take (a person's situation) as an example.
- Even when the damage isn't that clear cut, the intangible burdens of a bad image can add up. Just ask Dow Chemical.1990 April 26, Paul Wiseman, “Dark days”, in USA Today
Noun (1)
ask (plural asks)
- An act or instance of asking.
- To ask for a gift is a privilege, a wonderful expression of commitment to and ownership of the organization. Getting a yes to an ask can be a rush, but asking for the gift can and should be just as rewarding.2005, Laura Fredricks, The ask
- That really does not seem much of an ask.2022 December 14, Christian Wolmar, “No Marston Vale line trains... and no one in charge seems to 'give a damn'”, in RAIL, number 972, page 46
- Something asked or asked for.
- I know this is a big ask, but …
- Communication researchers call this the foot-in-the-door syndrome. Essentially it's based on the observation that people who respond positively to a small “ask” are more likely to respond to a bigger “ask” later on.2008, Doug Fields, Duffy Robbins, Speaking to Teenagers
- Synonyms:
- request
- An asking price.
- The buy prices are a bit higher than the sell prices; the difference between the buy/sell is called bid/ask spread. If you are selling a stock, you’ll get the bid price; if you are buying a stock, you’ll get the ask price.2018, David Borman, Day Trading 101, page 12
- A message sent to a blog on social networking platform Tumblr, which can be publicly posted and replied to by the recipient.
- Answering 'asks' like this is one common way that Tumblr bloggers interact with their followers, so it is in the act of publicly answering these asks that I examine community building practices.2017, Abigail Oakley, “Supporting one another: Nonbinary community building on Tumblr”, in Isabel K. Düsterhöft, Paul G. Nixon, editors, Sex in the Digital Age, unnumbered page
- The following example from Black Mental Health illustrates an ask from an anonymous follower seeking social support: […]2018, Lynette Kvasny, Fay Cobb Payton, “African American Youth Tumbling Toward Mental Health Support-Seeking and Positive Academic Outcomes”, in Amanda Ochsner, William G. Tierney, Zoë B. Corwin...
Noun (2)
ask (plural asks)
- An eft; newt.
- He looked at the beast. It was not an eel. It was very like an ask.1876, S. Smiles, Scottish Naturalist
- A lizard.
- We hear of Adder dens, but detailed accounts of the discovery of one are very rare. Service (1902) records that a peatman, when levelling on an estate by the Solway, found in a hole in the ground, some 8 inches below the surface, 40 adders, 10 toads and a large number of asks (lizards).1951, Malcolm Arthur Smith, The British Amphibians & Reptiles, page 258
Proper noun (1) capitalized: Ask
Ask
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Ask
Ask (plural Asks)
- A surname from Swedish.
Noun (3) capitalized: ASK
ASK (uncountable)
- Initialism of amplitude shift keying.
ask meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
ask in Hindi
- make a request
- पूछना pūchnā, माँगना māṅgnā
- request an answer
- पूछना pūchnā
ask in Tamil
- make a request
- கேள் kēḷ, கோரு kōru, வேண்டு vēṇṭu
- request an answer
- கேள் kēḷ, வினவு viṉavu
ask in Urdu
- make a request
- مانگنا māṅgnā
- request an answer
- پوچھنا pūchnā
ask in Bengali
- make a request
- চাওয়া caōẇa, বলা bola
- request an answer
- জিজ্ঞাসা করা jijnaśa kora, জানতে চাওয়া janote caōẇa, প্রশ্ন করা prośno kora
More languagesFewer languages
- ask in Telugu
- అడుగు aḍugu
- ask in Kannada
- ಕೇಳು kēḷu
- ask in Sanskrit
- पृच्छति pṛccháti
- ask in Assamese
- খোজা khüza, সোধা xüdha
- ask in Nepali
- सोध्नु sodhnu
- ask in Tagalog
- humingi, hingiin, magtanong
- ask in Arabic
- سَأَلَ saʔala, طَلَبَ ṭalaba, طلب ṭalab, سأل saʔal
- ask in Indonesian
- minta, tanya
- ask in Persian
- درخواستن darxâstan, پرسیدن porsidan, سؤال کردن so'âl kardan
- ask in Thai
- วาน waan, ขอ kɔ̌ɔ, ถาม tǎam, ถามหา tǎam-hǎa
- ask in Vietnamese
- cầu xin, hỏi
- ask in Myanmar
- ပန် pan, တိုင် tuing, မေး me:
Examples of ask in a sentence
- If you want to know, ask her.
- Ask him that he tell her —No need to, she'll already know by know.
- If you want help, you only have to ask.
- Everyone always asks what my advice is, and my advice is don’t overintellectualize your art.2022 October 14, Justin Curto, “The 1975’s Matty Healy Prefers Writing Lyrics He’s Afraid Of”, in Vulture, archived from the original on 18...
- Services during Yom Kippur are held continuously through the day and include readings from the Torah and the reciting of prayers expressing regret or asking for forgiveness.2019 October 8, Christina Maxouris and Doug Criss, “Everything you wanted to know about Yom Kippur”, in CNN:
- He is of age; ask him: he shall speak for himself.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 9:21:
Synonyms of ask
Forms of ask
| third-person singular present | asks |
|---|---|
| present participle | asking |
| past participle | asked |
| past | asked |
| alternative form | aks |
| alternative form | ax |
| first-person singular present (dialectal) | aks |
| first-person singular past (dialectal) | aksed |
| second-person singular present (archaic) | askest |
| second-person singular past (archaic) | askedst |
| third-person singular present (dialectal) | aks |
| third-person singular present (dialectal) | akses |
| third-person singular present (archaic) | asketh |
| third-person singular past (dialectal) | aksed |
| plural present (archaic) | asken |
| plural past (dialectal) | aksed |
| present participle (dialectal) | aksing |
Origin of ask
From Middle English asken, axen, from Old English āscian, from Proto-West Germanic *aiskōn, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eys- (“to wish; request”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian aaskje (“to ask, demand, require”), West Frisian easkje (“to ask, demand, require”), Dutch eisen (“to demand, require”), German heischen (“to ask, request, implore”), Russian иска́ть (iskátʹ), Sanskrit इच्छति (iccháti) (whence Hindi ईछना (īchnā).
From Middle English aske, arske, ascre, from Old English āþexe (“lizard, newt”), from Proto-West Germanic *agiþahsijā (“lizard”), a compound of *agiz (“snake, lizard”) + *þahsuz (“badger”). Cognate of German Echse (“lizard”).
From Old Norse Askr, from askr (“ash tree”).
Words formed from ask
- askability
- askable
- ask after
- ask around
- ask back
- ask box
- askee
- ask for
- ask for it
- ask for someone's hand in marriage
- ask for the moon
- ask for trouble
- askhole
- ask how high when someone says jump
- ask in
- asking for a friend
- asking rate
- ask me anything
- ask me one about sport
- ask me one on sport
- ask my arse
- ask out
- ask over
- ask round
- ask the impossible
- ask the question
- depends who's asking
- don't ask
- don't ask me
- for the asking
- I ask you
- if you ask me
- I thought you'd never ask
- it's better to ask forgiveness than permission
- it's easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission
- misask
- never ask the barber if you need a haircut
- no questions asked
- outask
- reask
- shoot first and ask questions later
- unask
- who's asking
- ask price
- bid-ask spread
- big ask
- hard ask
- tough ask
Phrases with ask
Words that rhyme with ask
5 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about ask
- What does ask mean?
- Ask means to request (information, or an answer to a question).
- What is ask in Hindi?
- Ask in Hindi is पूछना (pūchnā), माँगना (māṅgnā). See Ask meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use ask in a sentence?
- If you want to know, ask her.
- What part of speech is ask?
- Ask can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce ask?
- Ask is pronounced /ɑːsk/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of ask?
- The past tense of ask is asked.
Words near ask in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ask (page history and authors); Ask (page history and authors); ASK (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-to ask.ogg, en-us-ask.ogg.
Cite this entry: “ask.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ask. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.