Investigate

How to spell investigate

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce investigate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does investigate mean?

1. verbTo examine or inquire into something carefully in order to establish the facts.

Investigate in a sentence

• The police will investigate the break-in at the warehouse.

• Auditors were hired to investigate the missing funds.

Where does investigate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb investigare, which meant 'to track down' or 'to search into', built from the prefix in- meaning 'into' and vestigare meaning 'to follow a trail'. That root in turn comes from vestigium, the Latin word for a footprint or trace left behind; to investigate was literally to follow the footprints of something. English adopted the word in the early 1500s, keeping the sense of methodical searching while broadening it to cover any careful inquiry into facts or wrongdoing. The same vestigium root survives in the English word 'vestige', meaning a small surviving trace, which is a useful memory hook: the middle of investigate hides the same 'vestig' trail. Because the third syllable is an unstressed schwa, writers sometimes slip and spell it 'investagate', so picturing the buried 'vestige' keeps the i in place.

How the word is built

• in- (into)
• vestig (from Latin vestigium: footprint, trace)
• -ate (verb suffix)