scrutiny

American  

[skroot-n-ee] / ˈskrut n i /

noun

• scrutinies
  plural

1. a searching examination or investigation; minute inquiry.

2. surveillance; close and continuous watching or guarding.

3. a close and searching look.

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scrutiny British  

/ ˈskruːtɪnɪ /

noun

1. close or minute examination

2. a searching look

3. 1. (in the early Christian Church) a formal testing that catechumens had to undergo before being baptized

   2. a similar examination of candidates for holy orders

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Synonym Usage

See examination.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonscrutiny
  noun
• rescrutiny
  noun
• self-scrutiny
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• scrutinies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of scrutiny

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin scrūtinium “a search, inquiry, investigation,” derivative of scrūtārī “to search thoroughly”

Explanation

Scrutiny is when you look at something really closely, like when you are checking a test for mistakes. Scrutiny can also be an intense look, like when your mother looks at you — trying to tell if you might be lying. Scrutiny comes from the Latin scrutari, which means “to search,” but which originally meant, “to sort trash.” When you turn in a draft of your essay, you are subjecting it to your teacher's scrutiny — and there's a good chance that she'll find some sentences that can be "trashed" as well as sections that could be improved.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scrutiny scrutinies

The lawsuit adds to mounting legal scrutiny of Amazon’s labor and logistics practices.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

Whatever the message, the appearance is the thing that has attracted the most attention, and with many on social media saying the scrutiny comes from genuine concern.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

But on scrutiny, there’s nothing meaningful in any of them.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

The scrutiny over Grande’s body, and that of her co-stars Cynthia Erivo and Michelle Yeoh, intensified in 2025 amid the press tour and promotion for “Wicked: Part 2.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026

The Trinity test was to take place under nerve-wracking scrutiny.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik

Tellingly, Maritain notes what too many U.S. literary critics have ignored: that "American literature, in its most objective scrutinies, has been preoccupied with the beyond and the nameless which haunt our blood."

From Time Magazine Archive

In the late 1920s, his close analysis of a Shakespeare sonnet impressed Critic William Empson and led, indirectly, to the textual scrutinies of the New Criticism of the 1940s and '50s.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nevertheless, it was not without much difficulty, and after many supplemental scrutinies and inquisitions from a board of officers before whom he was subsequently brought, that our wanderer was finally permitted to quit the cliff.

From Israel Potter by Melville, Herman

And these high scrutinies are subjects fit For man's all-searching and inquiring wit; That search of knowledge did from Adam flow; Who wants it yet abhors his wants to show.

From Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham by Denham, John, Sir

It is somewhat remarkable that, notwithstanding his long and repeated scrutinies of this planet, the eighth satellite, Hyperion, and the crape ring should have escaped him.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various

Related Words

• analysis
• audit
• inquiry
• inspection
• investigation
• review
• search
• surveillance