1. The act of inspecting something regarding errors: The signature on the will had to go through a close examination to determine if it was genuine or not.
2. A medical health check requiring different tests: A yearly breast examination is a good thing for women.
3. A detailed assessment normally by using questions to see what students have learned: Foreign students have to take a language examination before they can be enrolled into a college or university.

1. A hands-on evaluation of the abdominal cavity to identify abnormalities, if there are any, based on a change in size, shape, consistency, or sound on percussion of the organs found inside: Because Voni was experiencing pains in her stomach, Dr. Black performed an abdominal examination to see what was causing Voni's symptoms of discomfort.
2. The physical evaluation of a patient's midsection with visual inspection, auscultation, percussion, and palpation: An abdominal examination includes the visual examination of the normally oval shape of the abdominal surface while the patient is lying on his or her back which may reveal abnormal surface features indicating the effects of a disease, surgery, or injury.

Below the surface, tumors, fluid accumulation, or hypertrophy of the liver or spleen may be seen as an abnormal surface feature.

Auscultation, or listening to sounds within the body, usually with a stethoscope, may reveal vascular sounds that provide information about arterial disorders, such as aortic aneurysms of the aorta and bowel sounds that indicate intestinal function.

In a pregnant patient, auscultation can detect fetal heartbeat and blood circulation in the placenta.

Percussion, the tapping of a part of the body for diagnostic purposes, helps to determination the condition of internal organs while palpation, or feeling the size, shape, or firmness of body parts, is used to detect areas of tenderness or rigidity, muscle tone and skin condition, and the shapes and sizes of organs or masses under the surface of the skin.