scrut-

A careful and detailed examination of something in order to get information about it: A close scrutiny of the plumbing in the apartment building revealed a defective pipe that needed to be replaced.

Something that is incomprehensible or impossible to determine: The inscrutability of the financial investment, as serious as it was, resulted in just about no one understanding why its value dropped so low.

The inscrutability of the future can not be logically determined until it is actually available for analysis.

1. A reference to being impossible or too difficult to be explained or perceived: The inscrutable financial report by the company was too obscure and too vague for the tax accountants to figure out.

The police psychiatrist could not understand the killer's inscrutable motives.

2. Mysterious, unfathomable, or physically impenetrable: The teacher spoke so softly that sometimes his lectures were inscrutable by most of the students. © ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.
© ALL rights are reserved.

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Anything which is incapable of being easily discerned, is confusing, or obscure because it lacks clarity: The inscrutableness of many dictionaries makes it very difficult for users to find out what the word entries actually mean; for example, one dictionary (and others) present:

• The word entry: transpositional, of or pertaining to transposition; involving transposition.
• Then when a person looks up the word transposition, he or she gets the following definitions:

  1. The act of transposing.

  2. The state of being transposed.

  3. Something that has been transposed.

• Another well-known dictionary says, The action of transposing something: transposition of word order; a transposition of an old story into a contemporary context.
• Another example: audacity:

  1. The quality or state of being audacious.

  2. An audacious act, remark, etc.

That which can be recognized by careful study, research, and investigation: The scrutability of the construction of the new apartments made it easier for the building inspector to determine whether the structure was put together properly.

Inclined to being able to inspect carefully and to grasp: The scrutable statements of the politician, Mr. Hillman, were usually clearly presented and verifiable.

To search out and to track down: The detective, Mr. Gregory, was scrutating the crime in order to determine whether Rufus, the accused, actually committed the robbery or not.

A person who is a conscientious examiner or inquirer: Mr. Dawson, the investment scrutator, had a reputation for successfully determining the best place to place people's money.

Someone who inspects something carefully: Mr. Nelson was a scrutineer, or an official, whose job it was to examine or to count the votes in an election and to make sure that it was honest.

To analyze and to study closely: Doug, the building inspector, scrutinized the foundation of the new building from the bottom to the top to make sure that all of the work was done properly and without any mistakes. © ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

A reference to that which is regarded or investigated meticulously: Dwight, the editor, checked the other editor's scrutinized examination of the book.

The act of going over something very carefully to find out if there are any mistakes: The scrutinies of the geography quizzes completed by the students was being checked by their teacher.

David's word knowledge is based on a careful scrutiny of various dictionaries and other specialized sources; such as, books about biology, psychology, physics, mathematics, and several other scholarly publications.