The $64,000 Question was an American game show, broadcast in the late 1950s, in which contestants got the chance to win $64,000 for correctly answering a series of questions. Today, while most of us have never seen the game show, the phrase the $64,000 question remains as an idiom. Its definition is loose, but it usually means the crucial or essential question. Something referred to as the $64,000 question is usually an important issue whose outcome can’t be foreseen and on which much hinges.
There are a few ways to write this idiom—including the $64,000 question, the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question, the 64,000-dollars question, and so on. Most writers who use it model it after the game show title, though the and question are usually uncapitalized.
The $64,000 question will probably become less common. It refers to a TV show that is fading from memory, and it’s also a mouthful. Most writers opt to use the briefer million-dollar question.
Examples
What kind of store it will be under the new management was the sixty-four thousand dollar question for the Lovettsville cooperative board. [Leesburg Today]
The question of who will speak out as the United States under goes dramatic changes in the 21st century will be the 64,000 dollar question. [Latina Lista]
At £80 a pop, the £64,000 question is, who would steal them? [Guardian]
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