answer

Forms

1.A response or reply; something said or done in reaction to a statement or question.
- Her answer to his proposal was a slap in the face.
- When a student types a complex question into a chatbot, they get a polished (though not necessarily authentic, accurate or nuanced) answer in seconds.
2.A solution to a problem.
- There is no simple answer to corruption.
- Violence is not the answer to disagreements.
3.Someone or something that fills a similar role or position.
- Anti-pornography crusader Mary Whitehouse, who successfully brought London's Gay News to trial recently on charges of "blasphemy," is emerging as England's answer to Anita Bryant.
4.A document filed in response to a complaint, responding to each point raised in the complaint and raising counterpoints.
- I don't have to answer that question.
- I don't have to answer your question.
- Nobody could give the correct answer.

1.To make a reply or response to.
2.To speak in defence against; to reply to in defence.
3.To respond to a call by someone at a door or telephone, or other similar piece of equipment.
- Nobody answered when I knocked on the door.
4.To suit a need or purpose satisfactorily.
- Of course for publication in a newspaper, my palaeotype would not answer, but my glossotype would enable the author to give his Pennsylvania German in an English form and much more intelligibly.
- Theobald spoke as if watches had half-a-dozen purposes besides time-keeping, but he could hardly open his mouth without using one or other of his tags, and "answering every purpose" was one of them.

Common· #742

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₂ent-

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *h₂éntsder.

Proto-Germanic *anda-

Proto-Indo-European *swer-der.

Proto-Germanic *swarō

Proto-Germanic *andaswarō

Proto-West Germanic *andaswaru

Old English andswaru

Middle English answere

English answer