Inspection

How to spell inspection

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce inspection

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inspection mean?

1. nounA careful, often official, examination of something to check its condition or compliance.

Inspection in a sentence

• The landlord scheduled an inspection of the flat before the new tenants moved in.

• The car failed its annual inspection because of worn brake pads.

Where does inspection come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word inspection comes from the Latin inspectio, a noun built on the verb inspicere, meaning 'to look into' or 'to examine closely'. That verb combined the prefix in-, meaning 'into' or 'upon', with specere, meaning 'to look', the same root that gives English a whole family of seeing words such as spectacle, spectator, suspect and respect. By the 1400s the word had passed into English, partly through Old French inspeccion, with the practical sense of a careful examination or official survey. The spelling follows the Latin pattern faithfully: the t of the root becomes a soft 'sh' sound before -ion, so the word is pronounced with a 'shun' ending even though it is written with a t. Keeping the spect cluster in mind, picturing a spectator who looks, helps fix the spelling and resist the temptation to write 'inspecshun'.

How the word is built

• in- (into, upon)
• spect (from specere: to look)
• -ion (noun of action)