"beg the question" meaning in English

See beg the question in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sapaa-beg the question.wav [US] Forms: begs the question [present, singular, third-person], begging the question [participle, present], begged the question [participle, past], begged the question [past]
Etymology: Translating Latin petītiō prīncipiī, itself translating Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhēî aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”). Etymology templates: {{der|en|la|petītiō prīncipiī}} Latin petītiō prīncipiī, {{der|en|grc|τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι||to assume from the beginning}} Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhēî aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”) Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} beg the question (third-person singular simple present begs the question, present participle begging the question, simple past and past participle begged the question)
  1. (philosophy, logic, law) To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii). Related terms: begging the question, question the question Translations (to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)): olettaa johtopäätös todeksi (Finnish), esittää kehäpäätelmä (Finnish)
    Sense id: en-beg_the_question-en-verb-Mvzk5zS9 Categories (other): Law, Logic, Philosophy, English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Finnish translations, Terms with German translations, Terms with Hungarian translations, Terms with Spanish translations, Logical fallacies Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 88 8 4 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 86 7 6 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 87 7 6 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 89 6 5 Disambiguation of Terms with Finnish translations: 81 11 7 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 78 13 9 Disambiguation of Terms with Hungarian translations: 85 9 6 Disambiguation of Terms with Spanish translations: 81 10 9 Disambiguation of Logical fallacies: 98 2 0 Topics: human-sciences, law, logic, mathematics, philosophy, sciences Disambiguation of 'to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)': 97 2 1
  2. To sidestep or fail to address a question. Translations (to sidestep or fail to address a question): sivuuttaa kysymys (Finnish), (eleve) bizonyítottnak/nyilvánvalónak/adottnak vesz/tekint (Hungarian)
    Sense id: en-beg_the_question-en-verb-pYiN693q Disambiguation of 'to sidestep or fail to address a question': 4 91 5
  3. (sometimes proscribed) To raise or prompt a question. Tags: proscribed, sometimes Translations (to raise or prompt a question): herättää kysymys (Finnish), zu der Frage drängen (German), die Frage hervorrufen (German), felveti a kérdést / annak a kérdését (azt) (Hungarian), hacer surgir la pregunta (Spanish), llevar a preguntarse a (Spanish)
    Sense id: en-beg_the_question-en-verb-hbkB0L5N Disambiguation of 'to raise or prompt a question': 3 6 91

Inflected forms

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        "4": "",
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      "name": "der"
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  "etymology_text": "Translating Latin petītiō prīncipiī, itself translating Ancient Greek τὸ ἐν ἀρχῇ αἰτεῖσθαι (tò en arkhēî aiteîsthai, “to assume from the beginning”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "begs the question",
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        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "begging the question",
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        "participle",
        "present"
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    },
    {
      "form": "begged the question",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
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      "form": "begged the question",
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  "lang_code": "en",
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          "text": "The objection is that the argument begs the question, meaning that the premise, that God has all the virtues, assumes the conclusion, that God is benevolent.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)."
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          "begging the question"
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        "(philosophy, logic, law) To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)."
      ],
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        {
          "_dis1": "50 23 27",
          "word": "begging the question"
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          "code": "fi",
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          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)",
          "word": "olettaa johtopäätös todeksi"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "97 2 1",
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)",
          "word": "esittää kehäpäätelmä"
        }
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        {
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        }
      ],
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        "To sidestep or fail to address a question."
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          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "lang_code": "fi",
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          "text": "Invariably, the principal object is to improve air quality. But those constraints beg the question: why has no city followed Nottingham's example of a workplace parking levy, which has generated about £10 million a year to finance the city's tram system?",
          "type": "quotation"
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        "(sometimes proscribed) To raise or prompt a question."
      ],
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        "sometimes"
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          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "fi",
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          "lang_code": "fi",
          "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
          "word": "herättää kysymys"
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          "code": "de",
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          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
          "word": "die Frage hervorrufen"
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          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
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          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "lang_code": "hu",
          "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
          "word": "felveti a kérdést / annak a kérdését (azt)"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
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        },
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          "_dis1": "3 6 91",
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "lang_code": "es",
          "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
          "word": "llevar a preguntarse a"
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          "begging the question",
          "begging the question"
        ],
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        "(philosophy, logic, law) To engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)."
      ],
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        "human-sciences",
        "law",
        "logic",
        "mathematics",
        "philosophy",
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        "To sidestep or fail to address a question."
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      ],
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        "(sometimes proscribed) To raise or prompt a question."
      ],
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)",
      "word": "olettaa johtopäätös todeksi"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "to engage in the logical fallacy of begging the question (petitio principii)",
      "word": "esittää kehäpäätelmä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "to sidestep or fail to address a question",
      "word": "sivuuttaa kysymys"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "to sidestep or fail to address a question",
      "word": "(eleve) bizonyítottnak/nyilvánvalónak/adottnak vesz/tekint"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "lang_code": "fi",
      "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
      "word": "herättää kysymys"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
      "word": "zu der Frage drängen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
      "word": "die Frage hervorrufen"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "lang_code": "hu",
      "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
      "word": "felveti a kérdést / annak a kérdését (azt)"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
      "word": "hacer surgir la pregunta"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "lang_code": "es",
      "sense": "to raise or prompt a question",
      "word": "llevar a preguntarse a"
    }
  ],
  "word": "beg the question"
}

Download raw JSONL data for beg the question meaning in English (5.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.