Life is full of complicated questions. But is there a word to describe a question that simply has no correct answer?
Below, we’ve compiled a list of 10 words to describe this phenomenon, so read on to have all your questions answered!
Words for a Question With No Answer
- Unanswerable
- Imponderable
- A conundrum
- An enigma
- A mystery
- Ill-defined
- Ambiguous
- Rhetorical
- Open-ended
- Loaded
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The best word to describe a question that doesn’t have a simple or straightforward answer is “unanswerable.”
- A question that is too inexact or impossible to answer is “imponderable.”
- A rhetorical question is one posed to make a point, so no answer is expected or required from the audience.
Keep reading! In the next section, we’ll discuss three of our favorite words for a question with no answer in greater detail.
We’ll even provide some helpful example sentences.
Unanswerable
The best word for a question that cannot be answered is “unanswerable.”
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, an “unanswerable” question is a question “without an answer.”
This may seem like a strange concept at first glance. After all, why pose a question for which there is no possible response?
However, you’ll find that humans are philosophical creatures. Therefore, we constantly ask questions that are too complex to answer simply and concisely.
In short, a question can be “unanswerable” because we simply don’t have enough information to answer it at present. Or it may be “unanswerable” because human beings simply can’t fully grasp the intricacies of the question in the first place.
To better understand this term, let’s see it in a couple of example sentences:
As a mathematician, I have often asked myself whether human beings created mathematics or whether we simply discovered it. Unfortunately, it is an unanswerable question.
How long humanity will linger is an unanswerable question, but I would urge us not to take for granted how fleeting our entire history is in the grand scheme of things.
Imponderable
Merriam-Webster defines the word “imponderable” as “incapable of being weighed or evaluated with exactness.”
Essentially, an “imponderable” question cannot be answered because the subject of the question lacks certainty. Thus, we cannot even begin to ponder what the answer might be!
This is distinct from an “unanswerable” question. After all, you can ponder over an “unanswerable” question all day yet never reach a conclusion.
Meanwhile, an “imponderable question” feels impossible to even think about since there is no way to define the subject of your question with exactness.
Still not sure? Well, let’s see a few examples that include this term:
I’m afraid your question is imponderable since there is no way to fully define the human experience on account of our vast individual perceptions of it.
Would you regret your choices if you found out God was real? Or is it an imponderable question?
Rhetorical
You can call a question that doesn’t need an answer “rhetorical.”
After all, the Cambridge Dictionary defines a “rhetorical question” as “a question, asked in order to make a statement, that does not expect an answer.”
The best way to understand rhetorical questions is to see one for yourself. For example:
Why would you treat someone that way?
The asker of this question doesn’t want the listener to explain their reasons for treating someone poorly.
In fact, they probably believe that there is no reasonable explanation for doing so!
Therefore, they are posing the question to express their disapproval and don’t expect to receive an answer.
Let’s look at one more example to make sure this idea sinks in:
Did you sustain a head injury recently? That’s a rhetorical question, by the way, but stop saying stupid things.