Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell investigation

hear itin·ves·ti·ga·tion/ɪn,vɛstə'ɡeɪʃən/nounHidden vowels

What it means: A thorough inquiry into something.

In a sentence: The detective started an investigation to find the missing puppy.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as investagation or investegation.

Same family: investigated, investigating, investigative, investigator, inquiry. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Investigation” comes from the Latin word *investigatio*, from *investigare*, meaning “to track or search after,” like following footprints. It originally suggested literally tracking something, and now it is used for careful, systematic searches for truth or facts.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa) · Prefixes keep every letter

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