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say it: AN-sur
answer is a verb and noun meaning "react verbally". It is pronounced /ˈænsɚ/ — AN-sur. It carries 15 recorded senses.
give a defence or refutation of (a charge) or in (an argument)
“The defendant answered to all the charges of the prosecution”
be sufficient; be adequate, either in quality or quantity
“A few words would answer”
“This car suits my purpose well”
“Will $100 do?”
“A `B' grade doesn't suffice to get me into medical school”
“Nothing else will serve”
match or correspond
“The drawing of the suspect answers to the description the victim gave”
be satisfactory for; meet the requirements of or serve the purpose of
“This may answer her needs”
react to a stimulus or command
“The steering of my new car answers to the slightest touch”
a statement that solves a problem or explains how to solve the problem
“they were trying to find a peaceful solution”
“the answers were in the back of the book”
“he computed the result to four decimal places”
the speech act of replying to a question
the principal pleading by the defendant in response to plaintiff's complaint; in criminal law it consists of the defendant's plea of `guilty' or `not guilty' (or nolo contendere); in civil law it must contain denials of all allegations in the plaintiff's complaint that the defendant hopes to controvert and it can contain affirmative defenses or counterclaims
law
a nonverbal reaction
“his answer to any problem was to get drunk”
“their answer was to sue me”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for answer come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.