verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To examine something with great care. UK, transitive

   "Because his opinions are all over the place, they find it easy to scrutinise them and lay them out;"

2. 2
   examine carefully for accuracy with the intent of verification wordnet
3. 3
   To audit accounts etc in order to verify them. UK, transitive
4. 4
   to look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

auditauditinspectinspectreviewscrutinize

Example

More examples

"When writing a dissertation, it is important to heavily scrutinise your secondary sources."

Etymology

From scrutiny + -ise.

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