WORD OF THE DAY: SCRUTINISE
verb|SKROO-tuh-nyze
What It Means
To scrutinise something is to examine it carefully especially in a critical way.
// I closely scrutinised my opponent’s moves before making my own.
Examples of SCRUTINISE
“The governor proposes a balanced budget, and the General Assembly scrutinises every line.” — J.B. Jennings, The Baltimore Sun, 5 Feb. 2026
Did You Know?
Scrutinise the history of scrutinise far back enough and you wind up sifting through trash: the word comes from Latin scrutari, which means “to search, to examine,” and scrutari likely comes from scruta, meaning “trash.” The etymology evokes one who searches through trash for anything of value. The noun scrutiny preceded scrutinise in English, and in its earliest 15th century use referred to a formal vote, and later to an official examination of votes. Scrutinise was established in the 17th century with its familiar “to examine closely” meaning, but retained reference to voting with the specific meaning “to examine votes” at least into the 18th century. (Votes are still commonly said to be scrutinised in the general sense of the word.) And while the term scrutineer can be a general term referring to someone who examines something, it is also sometimes used in British English specifically as a term for someone who takes or counts votes.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
