Meaning & use
scrutinize
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To look at or study something very carefully, checking every detail.
Grammar: Takes an object: scrutinize the contract.
Patterns
- scrutinize something
- scrutinize something for something
The inspector scrutinized the document for errors.
She scrutinized his face to see if he was lying.
Auditors scrutinize every expense report.
verbtransitive
To examine someone's actions or decisions critically, often in public or officially.
Grammar: Often passive: the plan was closely scrutinized.
Patterns
- be scrutinized by someone
- scrutinize someone's decisions
Voters scrutinize every promise a candidate makes.
The committee will scrutinize the minister's spending.
Her choices were scrutinized by the press.
Word forms
| third person singular | scrutinizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | scrutinized |
| past participle | scrutinized |
| -ing form | scrutinizing |
| British spelling | scrutinise |
Common combinations
- scrutinize closely
- Experts scrutinized the painting closely.
- scrutinize the evidence
- The jury must scrutinize the evidence.
- scrutinize a contract
- Always scrutinize a contract before you sign.
- scrutinize every detail
- He scrutinized every detail of the map.
- carefully scrutinized
- The results were carefully scrutinized by two teams.
Synonyms and how they differ
- examine
- Examine is the broad everyday word, while scrutinize suggests an especially close and critical look.
- inspect
- Inspect often means checking an object or place for faults, usually officially.
- analyze
- Analyze means breaking something into parts to understand it, rather than just looking closely.
- scan
- Scan is quicker and less thorough than scrutinize.
Opposites
Word family
- scrutiny noun
- careful, critical examination
- scrutineer noun
- a person who checks votes (British)
- inscrutable adjective
- impossible to understand or read
- scrutinizing adjective
- looking very closely
Commonly confused: scrutinize or scrutiny? scrutinize or scrounge?
scrutinize vs scrutiny
Scrutiny is the noun for the act of close examination, while scrutinize is the verb.
scrutinize vs scrounge
Scrounge means to get something by begging or hunting around, not examining closely.
Practice
A buyer reads every clause of a lease to catch hidden fees. She is ___ the lease.
Choose one answer.
Scrutinizing means checking every detail. Skimming and ignoring are careless, and signing blindly is the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “scrutinize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.