million-dollar question
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million-dollar question
Where it comes from
This collocation and its idiomatic meaning both long predate the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, whose last question involves a top prize of $1,000,000. They also predate the sixty-four thousand dollar question, which came from a TV game show that started in 1955 but clearly was itself influenced by similar existing constructions, including million-dollar question, which had this sense by 1927 at latest. The corpus shows that a burst of heightened popularity for such constructions occurred in the 1940s because of the radio program Take It or Leave It, which contained a sixty-four dollar question. All such collocations naming expensive questions seem to have their ultimate origins in literal instances (with various price tags) as managerial and public-debate issues; various examples of those are seen in publications from the 1910s.
noun million-dollar questions
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A question that is very important, difficult to answer, or (especially) both.
Newfoundland claims on western Labrador rest largely on old regulations for the fur industry. The new official boundary strikes north from Belle Isle Straits, turns west at 52° latitude for 300 miles and then weaves north toward Cape Chidley, encompassing on the way headwaters of all rivers draining
Similar: sixty-four dollar question, sixty-four thousand dollar question, billion-dollar question
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: a question to be decided, on whose answer depends a million-dollar expenditure. National Assn. of City Editors—One faction views with alarm the proposal of President Clyde P. Steen that the association raise a fund of $1,000,000 to fight Bolshevism. The opponents of Mr. Steen claim that city editors have enough to do without the additional responsibility and troubles of a milli
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noun Translations
| Español | la pregunta del millón |
|---|---|
| Français | la question à un million |
| Deutsch | Preisfrage |
| Русский | вопрос на миллион vopros na million |
Talk about this word "million-dollar question." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/million-dollar%20question. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. million-dollar question. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/million-dollar%20question "million-dollar question." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/million-dollar%20question.Cite this
@misc{million_dollar_question_2026,
title = {million-dollar question},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/million-dollar%20question},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
