investigation
part of speech
noun (investigation, investigations); from the verb investigate
meaning for a pupil
1) A careful search for facts to find out the truth about something, such as a crime or an accident. tree →
2) (school/science) A planned experiment or study to answer a question by testing and measuring. tree →
3) (maths) An open task where you explore numbers or shapes to find patterns and rules. tree →
sense in the lessons
Very common in school: «science investigation» means asking a question, making a prediction, doing a fair test and recording results. In maths, «an investigation» means exploring a problem («How many squares on a chessboard?»). In news and detective stories: a police investigation looks for clues and suspects. Phrases: «carry out an investigation», «under investigation», «an investigation into».
examples
- Our class did an investigation into which paper towel soaks up the most water. tree →
- The police started an investigation after the bike was stolen. tree →
- The cause of the fire is still under investigation. tree →
- In our maths investigation, we found a pattern in the square numbers. tree →
- A good science investigation must be a fair test. tree →
- The detective's investigation led her to the old lighthouse. tree →
- The school ran an investigation into who had broken the window. tree →
- We wrote up our investigation with a method, results and conclusion. tree →
- We have seen enough to know that a very interesting line of investigation has been opened." tree →
note
Countable: an investigation, investigations. «Carry out» or «conduct» an investigation (not «make»). «Under investigation» means it is still being studied. Do not confuse with «instigation» (starting trouble). In a fair test, change only one thing at a time and keep everything else the same.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «investigation» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.