Investigating

How to spell investigating

13 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce investigating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does investigating mean?

1. verbCarrying out a careful inquiry or examination to establish the facts about something.

Investigating in a sentence

• The detectives are investigating a break-in at the warehouse.

• The auditors spent weeks investigating the missing funds.

Where does investigating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb investigare, meaning 'to track' or 'to search into', which was built from the prefix in- 'into' and vestigium, the word for a footprint or track left on the ground. The literal image is wonderfully concrete: an investigator was originally someone following footprints to trace where a person or animal had gone. From that idea of tracing tracks came the broader sense of inquiring carefully into a matter to discover the truth. English adopted the verb 'investigate' in the sixteenth century, drawing it directly from Latin rather than through French, and the present participle 'investigating' is the form used for ongoing inquiry. The same vestigium root survives in the English word 'vestige', meaning a faint trace of something that once existed, which is a handy reminder of the hidden -stig- in the spelling.

How the word is built

• in- (into)
• vestig (from Latin vestigium: footprint, track)
• -ate (verb)
• -ing (present participle)