Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use inquisitive in a sentence

13 example sentences · adjective

Inquisitive means eager to acquire knowledge; acquisitive. Example: “But leaving that for the moment, how much did you part with, he queried, if I am not too inquisitive?”

Examples of inquisitive by meaning

adjectiveToo curious; overly interested; nosy.

  • But leaving that for the moment, how much did you part with, he queried, if I am not too inquisitive?1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 575

More sentences with inquisitive

  • Nordstrom sized up O'Malley's expression, beginning to soften from surly to inquisitive.2011, Dan Ferullo, chapter 7, in Monster Hill, [Morrisville, N.C.]: [Lulu.com], →ISBN, page 298. From the entry fugazi
  • I, being ornerily inquisitive, was forced to read The Quest of the Historical Jesus by Dr.2011, Susie Duncan Sexton, Secrets of an Old Typewriter: Stories from a Smart and Sassy Small Town Girl. From the entry ornerily
  • As an inquisitive teenager growing up in provincial eastern Germany, Katja Hoyer one day raised a question in class.2023 April 28, Frederick Studemann, “Katja Hoyer: we need to hear ‘the whole story’ about East Germany”, in Financial Times, London: The…. From the entry socialist
  • While individual Neanderthals were perhaps as inquisitive, imaginative and creative as individual Sapiens, superior networking enabled Sapiens to swiftly outcompete Neanderthals.2020 November 7, Yuval Noah Harari, “At Home With Our Ancient Cousins, the Neanderthals”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry outcompete
  • Nothing gets an overly inquisitive auntie or an uncle with unpalatable political views off your back like a Boxing Day fixture.2016, Daniel Gray, Saturday, 3pm: 50 Eternal Delights of Modern Football. From the entry get off someone's back
  • Humpbacks have inquisitive natures and will regularly spy hop to look at their surroundings, often around whale-watching boats.1992, Ross Isaacs, Tina Dalton, The Australian Guide to Whale Watching, Weldon, page 22. From the entry spy hop
  • But, leaving that for the moment, how much did you part with, he queried, if I am not too inquisitive?1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part III [Nostos], page 575. From the entry now you mention it
  • Humpback whales often display "inquisitive, friendly behavior" toward boats and humans, according to Jodi Frediani, a marine wildlife photographer and paper co-author.2025 June 10, Julia Jacobo, “How humpback whales are playfully communicating with humans, according to scientists”, in ABC News. From the entry humpback whale
  • This inquisitive approach shook the ancient political system, which had been handed down with little modification from the Chin Dynasty more than twenty centuries before.1943, Kwok Ying Fung, “Out of Yesterday”, in China, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →OCLC, page 14. From the entry chin
  • He lookedat me fora few seconds, with eyes like those of an inquisitive owl or curious herring, then suddenly burst into a peal of rumblesome laughings.2012, Mark Evans, Bleak Expectations. From the entry rumblesome
  • Yet while urban exploration retains a purely inquisitive outlook, whereby exploration is conceived of in moralistic terms, its gradual reliance on a transgressive outlook is inevitable.2006, Dylan Trigg, The Aesthetics of Decay: Nothingness, Nostalgia, and the Absence of Reason, page 191. From the entry urban exploration
  • An inquisitive aeroplane, which had been hovering over the scene, was picked off as by an Archie and made a forced landing, man and machine buried in filth.1929, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, When the World Screamed. From the entry archie

Meaning of inquisitive

  1. adjective Eager to acquire knowledge; acquisitive.
  2. adjective Too curious; overly interested; nosy.

Full definition of inquisitive

Questions about inquisitive in a sentence

How do you use inquisitive in a sentence?
Inquisitive is used as an adjective. For example: “But leaving that for the moment, how much did you part with, he queried, if I am not too inquisitive?”
What is a short sentence with inquisitive?
“Nordstrom sized up O'Malley's expression, beginning to soften from surly to inquisitive.”
What does inquisitive mean?
Inquisitive means eager to acquire knowledge; acquisitive.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: inquisitive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use inquisitive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/inquisitive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.