Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

quest

/kwɛst/ noun

In Latin: indāgātiō, investīgātiō, inquīsītiō Wiktionary

noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about quest at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A search for an alternative that meets cognitive criteria.
the pursuit of love
The act of searching for something.
a quest for diamonds

verb

Make a search (for).
Things that die with their eyes open and questing
Search the trail of (game).
The dog went off and quested
Bark with prolonged noises, of dogs.

Origin

From Middle English quest, queste; partly from Anglo-Norman queste, Old French queste (“acquisition, search, hunt”), and partly from their source, Latin quaesta (“tribute, tax, inquiry, search”), noun use of quaesita, the feminine past participle of quaerō (“to ask, seek”). Doublet of question.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word