exam
noun
an examination, as in school.
exam
1 American
[ig-zam]
/ ɪgˈzæm /
noun
Informal.
-
exams
plural
exam.
2
American
abbreviation
-
examination.
-
examined.
-
examinee.
-
examiner.
exam
British
/ ɪɡˈzæm /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of exam
First recorded in 1875–80; short form
Explanation
An exam is a test. Many high school and college classes have a midterm exam and a final exam. The word exam is short for examination, from 19th century student slang. An exam usually takes place in a class and consists of questions that test a student's knowledge. Sometimes the word describes a medical test of some kind, like an eye exam, a dental exam, or a physical exam. Rather than testing knowledge or skill, these exams are procedures meant to diagnose or rule out illnesses.
Vocabulary lists containing exam
Education and Academics, List 2
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Unit 18, Lesson 4
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But since CTE can only be confirmed in a post-mortem brain exam, the true extent among NFL players has remained unclear.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
Freeman was scheduled to take a final exam the day he was drafted.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Once you were finally in the exam room, your doctor tried to squeeze a lot into a short visit before moving on to the next patient.
From Slate ● Aug. 22, 2026
In most states, if a school isn’t ABA-approved, law-school graduates can’t take the bar exam to become licensed lawyers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
And she definitely appreciates doing well more than I do—she was so much happier about her exam grades than I was about mine.
From "Keeping Pace" by Laurie Morrison
“By 2023, it could pass the bar exam. By 2024, it could write working software and explain graduate-level science.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026
"That's just for one exam. It can cost us tens of thousands of pounds over the course of our training."
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2025
“This lawsuit is an attempt by the State Bar to shift the blame for its flawed development process for the February exam. We will defend ourselves vigorously in court.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2025
"I'm treating this as a journey. If I can help people get a breast exam, a colonoscopy, or a prostate exam. Go do it because, for me, early detection meant everything," he urged.
From Salon ● Nov. 14, 2024
“Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam. . . .”
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
The UC debate over whether to restore SAT and ACT emerged as one of the university’s most closely watched issues after more than 3,000 UC faculty signed open letters demanding the exams return.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
It requires 130 hours of class instruction, five exams and a 3,000-word research paper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
A simple Google search of this management software continues to show on-going issues due to outages, ransomware breaches, cyberattacks and tech glitches that caused global classes and exams to need rescheduling.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
It is hoped it would provide a solution for students like Abdi, 17, from east London, who failed to pass his exams in maths and English for the third time.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
He’d return for his exams and get right back on a plane.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
