¿Qué significa «siniestro»?

Qué means what in direct questions. In ¿Qué significa siniestro?, it introduces the question and asks for the meaning of the word siniestro.

So the structure is basically:

• qué = what
• significa = means / does ... mean
• siniestro = the word being asked about

It has a written accent because it is an interrogative word here.

Compare:

• qué = what? / what
• que = that, which, than, etc.

In direct and indirect questions, Spanish normally uses the accented form:

• ¿Qué significa siniestro?
• No sé qué significa.

So the accent helps show that it is a question word.

Spanish does not use the auxiliary do/does the way English does.

English says:

• What does siniestro mean?

Spanish expresses the same idea more directly:

• ¿Qué significa siniestro?
• literally: What means siniestro?

So significa already carries the full verb meaning, and Spanish does not need an extra word like does.

Spanish often puts the question word first, followed by the verb.

So:

• ¿Qué significa siniestro?

is the normal and natural order.

You are asking: What does the word siniestro mean?
Spanish does not need to rearrange the sentence in exactly the same way English does.

Because here siniestro is being mentioned as a word, not used as part of a normal sentence.

When you ask about the meaning of a word in Spanish, it is very common to say:

• ¿Qué significa siniestro?
• ¿Qué quiere decir siniestro?

You could also make it more explicit with:

• ¿Qué significa la palabra siniestro?

But the shorter version without an article is completely normal.

Yes. In standard Spanish, direct questions use both:

• an opening question mark: ¿
• a closing question mark: ?

So the correct punctuation is:

• ¿Qué significa siniestro?

This is different from English, which uses only the final question mark.

Those are Spanish-style angle quotation marks, often called guillemets. In Spain, they are a common typographic way to show that you are referring to a word or quoted expression.

So:

• ¿Qué significa «siniestro»?

means you are asking about the word siniestro itself.

You may also see:

• ¿Qué significa "siniestro"?

Both are understandable. The angle quotes are just a more traditionally Spanish typographic style.

Yes. That is very natural too.

Both of these are common:

• ¿Qué significa siniestro?
• ¿Qué quiere decir siniestro?

They both mean What does siniestro mean?

Very roughly:

• significar = to mean / to signify
• querer decir = to mean / literally to want to say

In everyday Spanish, both are widely used.

In Spain Spanish, it is pronounced approximately:

see-NYES-tro

A more detailed breakdown:

• si sounds like see
• nies has a nye sound
• tro sounds like troh

A rough IPA version is:

• /siˈnjes.tɾo/

The stress is on the middle syllable:

• si-NIES-tro

Yes. It comes from the verb significar.

Here it is the third-person singular present form:

• yo significo
• tú significas
• él/ella/usted significa

In this sentence, significa agrees with siniestro, treated as a singular item: What does siniestro mean?

It is neutral and perfectly normal in both spoken and written Spanish.

You can use it in many situations:

• in class
• in conversation
• when reading
• when asking a teacher or friend about vocabulary

If you want to sound a bit more explicit, you could say:

• ¿Qué significa la palabra siniestro?

But the original sentence is already natural and correct.

Usually, that would not be the best choice if you are asking for the meaning of the word.

• ¿Qué significa siniestro? = asks for the meaning of the word
• ¿Qué es siniestro? = would sound more like What is sinister? or What counts as sinister?

So if your goal is vocabulary, significa is the better verb.

Not always. Although they are related, you should be careful: this is a possible false friend situation.

Depending on context, siniestro can mean things like:

• sinister
• eerie / creepy / ominous
• left-hand-side in some specialized uses
• an accident, loss, or insurance claim in insurance language

So even if you know the English word sinister, Spanish siniestro may have a broader or different range of meanings depending on context.