The English Oracle

Word for declining to answer

--------------------------------------------------
Rise to the top 3% as a developer or hire one of them at Toptal: https://topt.al/25cXVn
--------------------------------------------------

Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Ancient Construction

--

Chapters
00:00 Word For Declining To Answer
00:34 Accepted Answer Score 29
01:22 Answer 2 Score 13
01:56 Answer 3 Score 18
02:40 Answer 4 Score 11
02:58 Thank you

--

Full question
https://english.stackexchange.com/questi...

--

Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

--

Tags
#singlewordrequests #phraserequests

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 29


I am not certain that it works perfectly in your context (pass, which you suggest, works well there), but the phrase no comment comes to mind. It has a bit of a stilted, press-related/political/official bent to it, but I think it's used frequently enough that it can be used in other types of conversations as well.

From Cambridge:

used to say that you do not want to answer someone's question:

  • His publicist replied with a firm "No comment."
  • If anyone asks me about my father, I just say, "No comment."
  • "Were you in the area at the time of the assault?" "No comment."
  • "Sir, what is your response to allegations of corruption?" "No comment."
  • All this trouble would have been avoided if she had simply responded "no comment."



ANSWER 2

Score 18


A somewhat obscure word is mu, which roughly rejects the validity of the question. From the OED (paywalled):

mu
Interjection
Used as an alternative to answering either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, in order to reject the validity of the question. rare.

1934: A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen Master: ‘Has a dog Buddha-nature, or not?’ Joshu answered ‘Mu.’
N. Senzaki & P. Reps, Gateless Gate 9

1979: You see, ‘mu’ is an ancient Zen answer which, when given to a question, unasks the question.
D. R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach x. 312




ANSWER 3

Score 13


Next question

I refuse to comment on or have said all that needs to be said about the thing you asked, so move on to the next question. Almost always said as a complete sentence.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms

That is settled, let's move on to something else. (Usually a way of evading further discussion.)
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs

It makes the point without being rude and can be used to tell the person asking that they have crossed the line into personal or delicate topics.




ANSWER 4

Score 11


(I'm/we're) not going there!

This short phrase could be used to indicate an unwillingness to respond to a line of questioning. It indicates a desire to avoid the entire topic, rather than declining to answer just one specific question. It could be an appropriate response to a comedian asking about your sex life, for example.