investigate
The exam tests students' knowledge, reasoning, and investigative abilities.
She was an excellent student who was admired for her investigative mind.
Surveillance and investigative work is expensive because it requires manpower.
There is a special investigative police unit for domestic violence cases.
Steve is a freelance investigative reporter who writes frequently about the causes and effects of wrongful conviction.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Analysing and evaluating
adjudication
analysable
analyse
analyser
analyst
assign
dive
have the measure of someone/somethingidiom
inspect
inspection
interpret
interpretable
interpretive
microscope
reinterpret
reinterpretation
reinvestigate
reinvestigation
research
weigh

investigative | American Dictionary

investigative
adjective
us/ɪnˈves·tɪˌɡeɪ·t̬ɪv/
intended to examine something carefully, esp. to discover the truth about it:
an investigative panel
He's one of the paper's strongest investigative reporters (= someone whose job is gathering facts to be published).

investigative | Business English

investigative
adjective
 LAWuk /ɪnˈvestɪɡətɪv/ us /ɪnˈvestɪɡeɪtɪv/
relating to the discovery of information about something, especially something that may be illegal:
Allowing a trade association representative to have access to the investigative information would be problematic.
The Attorney General announced an investigative inquiry into the organization.
an investigative agency/body/committee

Examples of investigative

investigative
The incidence of late arrhythmia in other reported series varies with the length of follow-up and the investigative technique.
Occasional finds in investigative files, for example, are so few and far between that the methodical research required would exceed the capacity of any researcher.
By 1750 law enforcement was still overshadowed by the gallows, but it had acquired many refinements, not least in its preventative and investigative functions.
The text's investigative nature and candid review of research should set readers on the path toward reflective practice.
The leave-one-out method produced an optimum pitch pattern that distinguished between ' communicative ' and ' investigative ' vocalizations.
Early evening news programs seldom feature investigative reports.
This means that information on the latest clinical trials and investigative techniques is not included.
As our investigative techniques become better and more refined we are discovering preclinical tumors of uncertain significance.
Most of the assistant investigative squad chiefs served concurrently as guard battalion chiefs.
Although laxatives can be very useful in treating constipation, in bowel training, or before surgery or investigative procedures, their incorrect use can be dangerous.
An investigative approach along these lines for humans, nonhuman primates, and rodents is described below.
His articles were characterised by a mixture of investigative journalism and social commitment.
Just like the burrow acts as an investigative apparatus, so too does the text by producing unreliable aporias.
Despite a careful clinical and investigative search, we were unable to find a cause for this symptom in either of our two patients.
Chronological depth is always sought, and frequently found, by investigative archaeologists and when it is found it is depicted on the resulting plan.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.