open-ended question
Invitation for elaboration
An open-ended question invites a full response rather than a simple yes, no, or fixed choice: What do you think we should do? contrasts with the closed Should we do A or B?
The term appears often in discussions of interviewing, teaching, and research methodology, where open-ended questions elicit richer, less predictable answers.
- inquiryRequest for information
- probeThorough examination or tool
- tell me morePrompt for details
- curiosityDesire to learn
- exploreTravel to discover
why · how · what if · elaborate · discuss · follow up · reflect · prompt · interview · active listening · dialogue · wonder · ponder · thinking out loud · thoughtful · food for thought · deeper · deep dive
- questionsinquiry, query, interrogatives, what, who
- Test Questionsmultiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, essay, short answer, fill in the blank