Scrutiny

How to spell scrutiny

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce scrutiny

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scrutiny mean?

1. nounClose, critical examination or inspection of something.

Scrutiny in a sentence

• The company's accounts came under intense scrutiny after the audit.

• Every claim on the form was subject to careful scrutiny by the panel.

Where does scrutiny come from?

Language of origin: Latin

Scrutiny comes from the Latin scrutinium, meaning 'a searching examination' or 'an inquiry', which was built on the verb scrutari, 'to search through' or 'to examine closely'. The root has a surprisingly humble origin: scrutari is thought to derive from scruta, meaning 'trash', 'rubbish', or 'broken odds and ends', so the original image was of a rag-and-bone collector rummaging through a heap of junk in search of something useful. From that literal picture of poking through discarded goods, the sense broadened to any careful, probing inspection. English took the word in during the early 1400s, partly through Old French and partly straight from Latin, first in the sense of a formal investigation or a counting of votes. The spelling preserves the Latin double consonant cluster 'scr' and the 'ut' of the root, which is the part writers most often blur.

How the word is built

• scrut- (from Latin scrutari: to search, examine)
• -iny (noun-forming suffix)