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beg the question

Cultural  

  1. 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.”

beg the question Idioms  

  1. 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?”).

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

That begs the question of how frontier models can differentiate themselves and, most importantly, monetize.

From MarketWatch

It’s an awful, protracted sequence that begs the question, satire or not, is this truly the funniest bit they could hatch?

From Los Angeles Times

“Over the last four years, the space has begged the question: How can we fill it with life?”

From The Wall Street Journal

Disney’s initial skepticism and the scene’s sheer impact on food both beg the question: How did one of the messiest foods imaginable become shorthand for romance?

From Salon

And yet it begs the question, why now?

From BBC

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

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.