Investigate
//ɪnˈvɛs.tə.ɡeɪt// verb
verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 To inquire into or study in order to ascertain facts or information. transitive
"to investigate the causes of natural phenomena"
- 2 conduct an inquiry or investigation of wordnet
- 3 To examine, look into, or scrutinize in order to discover something hidden or secret. transitive
"to investigate an unsolved murder"
- 4 investigate scientifically wordnet
- 5 To conduct an inquiry or examination. intransitive
""Why don't you investigate?" he demanded. And investigate I did."
Example
More examples"The farmer that lived nearby came to investigate."
Etymology
Recorded since circa 1510, a back-formation from investigation on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix), from Latin investīgātiō (“a searching into”), from investīgātus, the perfect passive participle of investīgō, equivalent to in- + vestigate. Displaced native Old English undersēċan (literally “to search under or between”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.