investigation
Americannoun
-
investigations
plural
-
the act or process of investigating or the condition of being investigated.
- Synonyms:
- exploration, scrutiny
-
a searching inquiry for ascertaining facts; detailed or careful examination.
- Synonyms:
- exploration, scrutiny
noun
Usage
What does investigation mean? An investigation is a thorough search for facts, especially those that are hidden or need to be sorted out in a complex situation. The goal of an investigation is usually to determine how or why something happened. Investigations are usually formal and official. The word is commonly associated with police investigations of criminal activity, but it is used in many other contexts to refer to the process of investigating—systematically finding and examining evidence. Example: After a six-month investigation, this news organization uncovered widespread corruption.
Synonym Usage
Investigation, examination, inquiry, research express the idea of an active effort to find out something. An investigation is a systematic, minute, and thorough attempt to learn the facts about something complex or hidden; it is often formal and official: an investigation of a bank failure. An examination is an orderly attempt to obtain information about or to make a test of something, often something presented for observation: a physical examination. An inquiry is an investigation made by asking questions rather than by inspection, or by study of available evidence: an inquiry into a proposed bond issue. Research is careful and sustained investigation.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of investigation
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English investigacio(u)n from Latin investīgātiōn- (stem of investīgātiō ). See investigate, -ion
Explanation
If something has gone missing, conduct an investigation to find it. To do this, seek out details associated with its disappearance, asking questions and gathering evidence in order to find out what happened to it. If you watch a lot of detective shows, it won’t surprise you to learn that the noun investigation traces back to the Latin words in-, meaning “into,” and vestigium, meaning “footprint, track.” An investigation may not always involve people looking for footprints at a crime scene, but that methodical gathering of details and other evidence associated with a crime or wrongdoing is at the heart of any investigation.
Vocabulary lists containing investigation
Florida EOC Biology 1
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Edge: Academic Vocabulary
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Miranda v. Arizona (1966): Syllabus
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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:
He was arrested in Westminster, London, on Tuesday as part of the investigation into the incident near the airbase in Gloucestershire last month.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
A spokesman for the German government declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Santa Ana Mayor Valerie Amezcua said in a social media post that the “matter is under investigation and details cannot be shared that could compromise the process.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026
The investigation into the cause of the fire is still ongoing, officers said.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
Without clues, the investigation didn’t know who or what to focus on.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
The NCA said about 100 investigations into gangs involved in organisation immigration crime were ongoing.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
The police has launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since they started, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Monday.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
Data storage company Snowflake told the BBC its investigations had "found no compromise" of its platform.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
But little of this scheme—described as a system of “sham” payments by the Premier League—would have come to light without years of investigations or the work of a Portuguese hacker known as Rui Pinto.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
That research, and other investigations like it, led to changes in air traffic regulations, mandating minimum distances between flight paths so as to prevent that kind of wake turbulence accident.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
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.
