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:
Hugging Face used a Chinese AI tool from the firm Z.AI in its investigation into what happened.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
When something goes wrong, however, reconstructing that journey can begin to feel like a real investigation.
From Salon ● Aug. 27, 2026
The national government has already launched an investigation, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reportedly personally supervising the process.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Prosecutors opened an investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported last September, but no charges have been brought.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Besides making Coal instantly popular at both the middle and high schools, it had made the news and sparked a congressional investigation into military experiments.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
“The lack of resources for police to conduct investigations will only benefit organized crime,” said Vladimir Muñoz, deputy director of the Judicial Investigation Department.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Most have been recorded in recent weeks and months, but the investigations go back to cases as far as August 2025.
From BBC ● Aug. 27, 2026
Earlier this spring, the county released the findings of two personnel investigations into Curtis’ conduct that were spurred by concerns raised by elections employees and their union representatives.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Over the next 27 years, there were 18 investigations, two remediation proposals and five treatment trials but, as of 2026, the acid tar lagoon remains.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
It got stronger as time went on, thanks to the investigations of Copernicus’s successors.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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.
