verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To examine something with great care or detail, as to look for hidden or obscure flaws. transitive

   "to scrutinize the conduct or motives of individuals"

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

Synonyms

All synonyms

inspectreviewsize upeyeballanalyzeappraise

Example

More examples

"We're going to scrutinize everything."

Etymology

From scrutiny + -ize.

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