Inspection

//ɪnˈspɛkʃən// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The act of examining something, often closely. countable, uncountable

    "Upon closer inspection, the animal turned out to be a dolphin, not a shark!"

  2. 2
    a formal or official examination wordnet
  3. 3
    An organization that checks that certain laws or rules are obeyed. countable, uncountable

    "The inspection fined the restaurant's owner because the kitchen was dirty."

Example

More examples

"I hope this makes it through baggage inspection."

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French inspeccion, from Latin īnspectiō (“examination, inspection”), from the verb īnspiciō (“I inspect”), from speciō (“I look at”). By surface analysis, inspect + -ion.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.