The High Rising Terminal (HRT) is a feature of some accents of English (most notably Australian English) where statements have a rising intonation pattern. Some have suggested that the HRT spread from Sydney to other parts of Australia, and seems to be spreading in lower socio-economic groups.

In Sydney, it is used three times as often by young people as by older people, and the spread seems to be being led by women. It has been suggested that the HRT has a facilitative function in conversation (i.e., it encourages the addressee to participate in the conversation), and such functions are more often used by women.

Some have attributed it to New Zealand, although it is not a characteristic of New Zealand English. As well as being a feature of speech patterns in the United States, it is also encountered in the Falkland Islands.

Although it is ridiculed in Britain as 'Australian Questioning Intonation' and blamed on the popularity of Australian soap operas among teenagers, HRT is encountered in English regional dialects, particularly in East Anglia, as well as in Northern Ireland.

HRT has often been called 'questioning intonation', but this term is not generally used by linguists as not all utterances that are questions have rising intonation. In fact, most sentences using a Wh-interrogative rise and then fall at the end.