Word: inquest (noun)

Associations

An inquest is an official investigation, usually by a government or legal authority, to find out the facts about someone's death, especially if it was sudden or suspicious.

• The police held an inquest to determine the cause of the accident. This means they officially investigated what happened.
• After the fire, there was an inquest to see if it was caused by negligence.
• The court ordered an inquest when the prisoner died unexpectedly. A synonym is "investigation," but an inquest is more formal and often related specifically to deaths, usually involving a legal or official process.

Substitution

Instead of "inquest," you can use:

• investigation (more general, not always about death)
• inquiry (formal questioning, can be about many topics)
• autopsy (medical examination of a body, but not a legal process) Using "inquest" shows a legal or official examination, especially about death.

Deconstruction

"inquest" comes from Latin "inquirere," meaning "to seek" or "to inquire." The prefix "in-" means "into," and "quest" comes from "quaerere," meaning "to ask" or "seek." So, "inquest" means "to seek into" or "to ask into" something, specifically facts about a death.

Inquiry

• Can you think of a situation where an inquest might be necessary?
• How is an inquest different from a simple police investigation?
• Have you ever heard about an inquest in the news? What was it about?