Probe

How to spell probe

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce probe

What does probe mean?

1. verbTo examine or investigate something closely and searchingly.
2. nounA thorough investigation or formal inquiry into something.
3. nounA slender instrument or device used to explore, measure, or examine.

Probe in a sentence

• verb

  The auditors began to probe the company's missing receipts.

• noun

  The council launched a probe into the wasted budget.

• noun

  The dentist used a thin metal probe to check the cavity.

• verb

  Detectives continued to probe the circumstances of the break-in.

• noun

  A federal probe uncovered the fraud within months.

• noun

  Engineers attached a temperature probe to the engine block.

Where does probe come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin probare, meaning 'to test, examine, or prove the worth of', which itself grew from probus, an adjective meaning 'good, upright, or honest'. In medieval Latin the related noun proba referred to an examination or proof, and surgeons adopted probra and proba for the slender instruments they used to explore a wound. English took up 'probe' in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries first as that surgical instrument, and the sense of carefully investigating soon followed. The same probare root sits inside the everyday words 'prove', 'probable', and 'approve', all of which once carried the idea of putting something to the test. The silent final -e is the only mild spelling snag, and it reflects the long 'o' inherited from the Latin vowel.

How the word is built

• prob- (from Latin probare: to test, examine)
• silent -e