Forensics

How to spell forensics

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce forensics

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does forensics mean?

1. nounThe use of scientific methods and techniques to investigate crime and analyse evidence.

Forensics in a sentence

• The police submitted the bloodstained shirt to forensics for analysis.

• Advances in DNA forensics have helped reopen many cold cases.

Where does forensics come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word traces back to the Latin forensis, meaning 'of the forum' or 'belonging to the public square'. In ancient Rome the forum was not only a marketplace but the place where law courts sat and legal disputes were argued aloud before the public. From that setting, anything forensic came to mean something connected with courts, public debate, and the presentation of arguments. English adopted 'forensic' in the seventeenth century, and the plural-style noun 'forensics' later grew two parallel branches: the scientific techniques used to gather and examine evidence for legal cases, and, especially in North American schools, the formal practice of competitive debate and public speaking. The shared Latin root explains why a courtroom expert and a debating club can both be described with the same word, since both ultimately concern arguing a case in public.

How the word is built

• foren- (from Latin forensis: of the forum, public)
• -ic (relating to)
• -s (forming a field of study)