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Glite Dictionary
🙏 To plead 🤲 To ask for charity ❓ To avoid answering
to beg

to beg

96 8.3
Avoid giving a direct answer by assuming the main point is true
  • verb
  • /bɛg/
  • Specialized
translation icon : plantear la cuestión
  • They seemingly shot up overnight, which begs the question, why?
  • begs the question
  • statement begs the question
  • analysis begs the question

And that begs the question, what is it doing?

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Examples

  • Ooms's "less than one in ten" still begs the question: Why shouldn't we care about one in ten?

    Academic text (1998)

  • But that explanation begs the question of what precisely "school discipline" involves.

    Academic text (1998)

  • And that does beg the question, why would you buy this?

    ExplainingComputers

  • We're going to beg the question, what is food?

  • "Even were the mayor an angel," I replied, "you beg the question."

    Fiction book (1994)

  • And that begs the question, what is it doing?

    Andrew Huberman

  • So that kind of begs the question, why?

    DoctorRamani

  • All of this begs the question for me, why?

    I've Had It

  • Since resources are available on campus for this growing population, this begs the question: why not?

    Academic text (2015)

  • This discussion about climate change really begs the question: what are we doing to address it?

Antonyms

to answer
∞ 1.0

To reply to a question or request

to address
211 3.9

To speak to someone directly, especially to ask a question

Idioms

to beg for one's life
  • NSFW
5 7.4

Ask someone very strongly not to kill or hurt you

Phrasal Verbs

to beg off
  • Informal
4 7.0

To ask to be excused from an activity by giving a reason

to beg on one's knees
  • Informal
1 7.0

Ask someone for help or forgiveness while kneeling and looking very desperate

Compounds

beg button
  • Informal
9.1

An action that asks people for help or sympathy

Surface Forms

beg infinitive
begged past
begged past participle
begging present participle
begs third person singular

Etymology

Beg in the phrase beg the question uses an older sense of 'to assume' or 'to avoid the point'. A helpful way to remember this is to think that the speaker takes the answer as given instead of showing it, so beg the question means to assume what you should prove.