verb · academic
investigate
UK/ɪnˈvɛstɪɡeɪt/US/ɪnˈvɛstəˌɡeɪt/in·VES·ti·gate
Band 6-7task2task1speaking
to examine, study, or inquire systematically to discover facts or information
Examples
“Researchers will investigate the causes of the species decline.”
“Police are investigating the source of the data breach.”
“Use 'investigate' in Task 2 when describing how you would study a social problem.”
Band 8 sentence
“To identify underlying trends, the team investigated longitudinal data from three national surveys.”
Collocations
- investigate the causes
- thoroughly investigate
- investigate allegations
Word family
investigation nouninvestigative adjective
Common mistakes
do an investigation→conduct an investigation / investigate
investigate about→investigate
Say it for a higher band
5look into→6examine→7+investigate
Synonyms
examine
Easily confused
examine
“The study examined students’ attitudes toward online learning.”
Related words
Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.
In Sublist 10
Learn it with its set