million dollar question

Meaning

1. 1nouncountableinformal

   An important question that is very hard to answer, or one that everybody is asking because the answer would decide everything.

   Grammar: Takes an or the: that is the million dollar question.

   Patterns

   • the million dollar question is whether/how/why...
   • that is the million dollar question

   Will the team win the title? That is the million dollar question.

   How do we pay for all this? That is the million dollar question.

   The million dollar question for investors is when interest rates will fall.

Word forms

Common combinations

the million dollar question

The million dollar question is whether anyone will turn up.

that's the million dollar question

Who will lead the company next? That's the million dollar question.

ask the million dollar question

He finally asked the million dollar question about the budget.

answer the million dollar question

No expert has yet answered the million dollar question about the cause.

the million dollar question is why

The million dollar question is why nobody noticed sooner.

Synonyms and how they differ

burning question

A burning question is one many people urgently want answered, but it does not stress how hard the answer is.

sixty-four thousand dollar question

This is the older British form of the idiom, based on a quiz show, and sounds dated beside million dollar question.

key issue

Key issue is neutral and formal, while million dollar question is playful and spoken.

big unknown

A big unknown names the missing information itself, not the question about it.

Opposites

Word family

question noun

the base noun for something asked

questionable adjective

open to doubt

unanswerable adjective

impossible to answer

Commonly confused: million dollar question or rhetorical question?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “million dollar question”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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