investigate
verb
Simple meaning
To inquire into or study to ascertain facts or information.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnvehstuhgaytSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈvɛstəɡeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To inquire into or study in order to ascertain facts or information.
Conduct an inquiry or investigation of
“The district attorney's office investigated reports of possible irregularities.”
transitive
To examine, look into, or scrutinize in order to discover something hidden or secret.
intransitive
To conduct an inquiry or examination.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To inquire into or study in order to ascertain facts or information.
Used this way, investigate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use investigate
- “The district attorney's office investigated reports of possible irregularities.”verb
- “Let's investigate the syntax of Chinese.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The work of inquiring into something thoroughly and systematically.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A scientist who devotes himself to doing research.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.