“investigate” the issue

Posted on: October 20, 2015 /

Categories: Conversation, Vocabulary

investigate (verb)

1. carry out a systematic or formal inquiry to discover and examine the facts of (an incident, allegation, etc.) so as to establish the truth.

“police are investigating a claim that the man was beaten unconscious by a gang”

2. carry out research or study into (a subject or problem, typically one in a scientific or academic field).

“future studies will investigate whether long-term use of the drugs could prevent cancer”

3. make inquiries as to the character, activities, or background of (someone).

“everyone with a possible interest in your brother’s death must be thoroughly investigated”

4. make a check to find out something.

“when you didn’t turn up I thought I’d better come back to investigate”

I recommend using ‘look into‘, ‘examine‘ instead of ‘investigate‘ when talking about a technical issue.