Other forms: investigated, investigating, investigates
To investigate is to look carefully into a matter to find out the truth. Investigate a crime, investigate the cause, the police are investigating.
It is the standard verb for police work, journalism and science alike, and it implies method rather than curiosity. It takes a direct object — investigate the fire — or works alone: we are still investigating. Note investigation, the noun; investigator, the person; and investigative journalism, meaning reporting that digs rather than reports. Under investigation is a phrase that says nothing about guilt and is often heard as though it did.
1verbinvestigateTo look carefully into a matter to find the truth.
“Two officers investigated it for about six months.”
investigate is a careful looking into.
Also accepted in games: examine
Latin investigare is in-, into, plus vestigium, a footprint — to follow the tracks. Vestige is the same word, so an investigation is literally a matter of following what is left behind.
Latin
investīgātiō — a searching into
English, today
investigate
Recorded since circa 1510, a a back-formation from investigation on the basis of -ate, from Latin investīgātiō (“a searching into”), from investīgātus, the perfect passive participle of investīgō, equivalent to in- + vestigate. Displaced native undersēċan.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA