Definition of "investigation" []

• The act or process of investigating. (noun)
• A detailed inquiry or systematic examination. See Synonyms at inquiry. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Perhaps I did not distinctly enough state that _Ecce Homo_ is not a book written after the investigation was completed, but the _investigation_ itself."
• "a letter which he wrote to the _Spectator_, repeating emphatically that the book is not one "written after the investigation was completed, but the _investigation_ itself.""
• "Information published in a New York Timesarticle by Michelle York, June 21, 2006 affirmed that "The President of Alfred State College whose leadership was the focus of a rare, three-month investigation by state education officials last year …" It would appear that the New York Times article (and later The Chronicle of Higher Education) used the term investigation erroneously."