BEG THE QUESTION Definition & Meaning

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beg the question

To assume what has still to be proved: “To say that we should help the region's democratic movement begs the question of whether it really is democratic.”

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Idioms and Phrases

Take for granted or assume the truth of the very thing being questioned. For example, Shopping now for a dress to wear to the ceremony is really begging the question—she hasn't been invited yet . This phrase, whose roots are in Aristotle's writings on logic, came into English in the late 1500s. In the 1990s, however, people sometimes used the phrase as a synonym of “ask the question” (as in The article begs the question: “What are we afraid of?” ).

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

It begs the question: If AI chatbots are programmed to become more and more like humans, can they handle the emotional burdens we share?

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It begs the question why employees are being subject to polygraph exams,which are notoriously unreliable and inadmissible in court, if DHS has already identified the culprits.

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Which begs the question - why do companies make them so long in the first place?

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This begs the question what will happen when other reporters question Trump on anything from vaccines to Ukraine to immigration to a variety of other important topics.

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That begs the question: is the reason this anglerfish was a stranger in a strange land because of climate change?

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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