Other forms: examined, examining, examines
To examine something is to look at it closely and slowly, for as long as it takes to be sure. The mechanic examines the tyre. The doctor examines your throat with a small light. You examine a second-hand phone for scratches before you hand over the money.
Examine is stronger than look at and slower than check: it says you are searching for something in particular. It goes with evidence, a wound, a document, a claim — and it works on ideas as easily as on objects, so a book can examine the causes of a war. The word also has a formal life in schools and courts: examiners examine candidates, a lawyer examines a witness, and that is where cross-examine comes from. The noun is examination, which shortens to exam for the test you sit and stays long for the one the doctor gives you.
1verbexamineTo look at something closely and carefully.~17%
“She examined the photograph under a lamp.”
synonyms: inspect, study, scrutinise
2verbbodyTo look over a body to find out what is wrong with it.~4%
“The doctor examined his knee and sent him for an X-ray.”
3verblookTo think about a question or an idea in detail.~76%
“The report examines why the bridge fell.”
4verbtestTo test somebody formally on what they know.~3%
“Students are examined on all four papers in June.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 142 sentences found in the wild and placed 136 of them on a sense (6 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: inspect
exa-MINE → a MINE
Deep in the mine, a man holds his lamp an inch from the wall. He turns one stone over, and over again, and holds it to the light, looking for the thin gold in it.
hooks ontomine
Latin
examino
Old French
examiner
Middle English
examinen
English, today
examine
From Middle English examinen, examenen, from Old French examiner, from Latin examino.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA