What is the difference between a question and a query? It seems that in certain circumstances, the words are interchangeable:
I have one further question.
I have one further query.
But, other times they are not:
The police officer questioned the man.
The police officer queried the man.
Query noun
- a question, esp one expressing doubt, uncertainty, or an objection
- a less common name for question mark
verb
- to express uncertainty, doubt, or an objection concerning (something)
- to express as a query ⇒ “What's up now?” she queried
- (US) to put a question to (a person); ask
Question noun
(the first five uses are listed but there are a total of fifteen.)
- a form of words addressed to a person in order to elicit information or evoke a response; interrogative sentence
- a point at issue ⇒ "it's only a question of time until she dies",
- a difficulty or uncertainty; doubtful point ⇒ "a question of money", "there's no question about it"
- (a) an act of asking (b) an investigation into some problem or difficulty
- a motion presented for debate by a deliberative body
verb
- to put a question or questions to (a person); interrogate
- to make (something) the subject of dispute or disagreement
- to express uncertainty about the validity, truth, etc, of (something); doubt
Source: Collins Dictionary
Common collocations with question: - probing - direct - straight - difficult - personal - loaded - rhetorical - controversial - awkward - embarrassing - inane - silly - tricky
Common collocations with query: - specific - separate
When the nouns question and query are synonymous
Query is more formal and slightly outdated, and can be substituted with either question or the more common reporting verb, ask.
“He questioned hopefully” sounds a little odd to me, I doubt a native speaker would actually say this, although it might be acceptable in its written form.
Similarities between question and query as verbs
They are both transitive verbs and are sometimes interchangeable.
Questions are more informal, broad, random, and can often be off-topic or out of context, spiraling into more discussion and debate. You've heard the phrase "begging the question", but not "begging the query"... this sums up the notion that questions can open up a can of worms, whereas I've yet to experience a query being so chaotic.
A query can be the action (verb) of submitting a question (noun). Queries are also used in computing as instructions you submit to a database to get results. I agree with Preteesh in that queries are more technical and exact: You send a query, you get a result. My personal interpretation is that there is not much creative thought involved in delivering an answer to a query, but there can be in answering a question.
Oxford online says:
Query
noun (plural queries)
a question, especially one expressing doubt or requesting information:
if you have any queries please telephone our office[...]
verb (queries, querying, queried)
[reporting verb]
ask a question about something, especially in order to express one's doubts about it or to check its validity or accuracy[...]
Query implies an official/technical doubt or question, whereas Question implies general question or doubt.
Query is a subset of Question.
In general usage, I would say that when you have a query about something, you're not quite sure whether your question is a question or not, or what the actual question is, as distinct from those occasions when you know what the question is, but you don't know what the answer to it is. Someone may say something for instance, that you may feel the need to query, because you sense there's something about it that's not quite right, but you don't know precisely what it is.
When you question something you are not always putting forth a query, but sometimes you are of polemical disposition.
Questioning the authoritarian laws of the state.
Whereas query invariably means an inquiry.
In situations like this and many others, I recommend you compare the etymology of the words, even if this "only" will give you the history of the words and not necessarily the current, modern meaning. There are so many words in English which have their roots in French, Latin etc. In the case of query vs question, they both seem to originate from the same meaning (in Latin):
"question" is derived from Anglo-French questiun, Old French question question, "difficulty, problem; legal inquest, interrogation, torture" from Latin quaestionem (nominative quaestio) "a seeking, a questioning, inquiry, examining, judicial investigation" noun of action from past participle stem of quaerere "ask, seek".
"query" originates in Latin quaere "ask," imperative of quaerere. (see above)
My interpretation/guess: perhaps "question" is closer to the noun-form, while "query" is closer to the verb, even if both can be used as nouns/verbs.
A query is "a question that you ask because you want information or because you are not certain about something [Macmillan]."
Oxford defines a query more specifically than a question; a question is
a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information
while a query is
a question, especially one expressing doubt or requesting information [emphasis mine]
They have distinct meanings in computer science as well.
Whenever a computer sends a request for a small amount of information to another computer, it is a query, or a request when the amount of information is not small. For example, the ping command asks for a response of negligible length to confirm the existence of another computer; ping is a query. However, a computer asks for an entire file to be sent, it is described as a request.
Question is used only when a computer requires human input. Synonyms here are input and prompt.
I consider "query", noun and verb, a simple variant of "question", especially as both words are derived from the same Latin verb queri, perfect quaestus sum. The normal word is question, the variant query is relatively rare.
Google Ngram question, query link
