case study

American  

noun

• case studies
  plural

1. a study of an individual unit, as a person, family, or social group, usually emphasizing developmental issues and relationships with the environment, especially in order to compare a larger group to the individual unit.

2. case history.

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case study British  

noun

1. the act or an instance of analysing one or more particular cases or case histories with a view to making generalizations

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• case studies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of case study

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

case study

It may turn out to be something closer to the opposite: a case study in how regulation ends up entrenching the companies it’s meant to restrain.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026

"This is like a case study for us to understand much more complicated materials."

From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 2026

Another patient, a 65-year-old veteran whose experience was chronicled in a case study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry this spring, fed ChatGPT the results of two previous memory tests.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

Burnham has argued that Greater Manchester is a case study in how devolution can lift economic growth.

From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026

I needed to reread that case study of the woman who had no symptoms except a stomachache and turned out to have C. diff.

From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

Related Words

• medical history