These words apply primarily to something said or written to satisfy or acknowledge a question, call, request, charge, etc. Answer is the most general word in this list, and though all the words here considered may be used figuratively of actions as well as words, answer is more variously used than any of them. When a question is asked, any words or action in return may be called an answer : a prompt answer to a letter; His answer was an uppercut to the jaw. Indeed, any satisfactory conclusion may be styled an answer : He had hoped that divorce would be the answer to all his problems. An answer in the form of a statement appropriate to the question is a reply : His reply to the request was a firm "No!"

A response is the reaction to a stimulus: Pavlov’s experiments proved that a conditioned response to a given stimulus could be induced in rats by the learned association of the right response with satisfaction and of the wrong response with pain. In more general use response refers to any answer to an urgent question or appeal, or to a set question : a response to a cry for help; the responses of a litany. A reply to a reply is a rejoinder , often in the form of a second question or demand; this word is particularly applicable to the give-and-take of a debate: a telling rejoinder which left his opponent momentarily speechless. Riposte , form the Italian word for answer , first meant a return thrust in fencing. By extension, it came to be applied to a verbal duel, meaning a quick, clever, retaliatory reply : a brilliant, if somewhat savage, riposte . A retort is a sharp answer, as to an accusation or criticism. The libellous accusation provoked a bitter retort .