How to Use investigate in a Sentence

investigate

verb
  • The manager promised to investigate when we pointed out an error on our bill.
  • The police are still investigating the murder.
  • He was investigated for his involvement in the incident.
  • The accident was thoroughly investigated.
  • The victim stopped and got out to investigate the crash.
    — Kaylee Remington, cleveland, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Authorities are investigating both the cause of the fire and whether the blaze is to blame for the woman’s death.
    — Howard Koplowitz | [email protected], al, 7 June 2023
  • The police continue to investigate the cause of the crash.
    — Caitlyn Freeman, Baltimore Sun, 2 Aug. 2022
  • And Bloomberg’s Dana Hull, who has been investigating the Twitter sitter for years, has yet to turn up a name.
    — Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge, 15 May 2023
  • Darby is in the middle of investigating something in the cold and snow of Iceland.
    — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 19 Dec. 2023
  • The church is investigating, and Bickle stepped down from his post.
    — Cherie Deville, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2023
  • The task force created to investigate the killings was formed in 1988 at a time when homicides in the region were rising.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 30 Oct. 2023
  • The government is currently investigating what caused the piece to blow off from the plane.
    — Asher Notheis, Washington Examiner, 15 Jan. 2024
  • In the film, the crew of the Nostromo investigates a distress call from a derelict spaceship on moon LV-426 and encounters the deadly Xenomorph.
    — Maddie Garfinkle, Peoplemag, 16 Aug. 2024
  • The contempt case involved efforts to investigate the attack on Congress and what led up to it, rather than the actual events of the day.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 22 July 2022
  • Runge has been investigating the six and thus Jamal over the past seven months.
    — Liam Quinn, Peoplemag, 3 Mar. 2024
  • And her case, although investigated, had gone cold—as is the stay of play for so many other trans people.
    — Daniel Scheffler, SPIN, 10 June 2024
  • Smith said no agents were injured and an FBI review team will investigate the shooting.
    — Juan A Lozano, Chron, 23 Mar. 2023
  • No injuries were reported in the fire, and fire officials were investigating the cause of the fire.
    — Deanese Williams-Harris, Chicago Tribune, 22 Jan. 2025
  • Dina investigates the nearby trees and returns to puke her guts out.
    — EW.com, 28 Apr. 2025
  • He was supposed to be the hero who caught bad guys and investigated evildoers.
    — Scott Johnson, Rolling Stone, 19 June 2023
  • City spokeswoman Gina Carter investigated and said the city did not delete them.
    — Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 26 Feb. 2025
  • He's promised to investigate people who get in the way of or threaten the DOGE team making cuts to federal agencies.
    — Carrie Johnson, NPR, 15 Feb. 2025
  • Erica Suter, Syed’s attorney, said Thursday that the state could try to set a trial date to give them more time to investigate the case.
    — Emily Davies, Washington Post, 23 Sep. 2022
  • The death of a man found in a creek in Montgomery County will be investigated as a homicide, police said Wednesday.
    — Omari Daniels, Washington Post, 12 July 2023
  • Then the team's called to investigate the murder of an ensign who was gunned down at the wheel of a truck transporting $3 million of black-market opioids that the Navy seized at sea.
    — Sara Netzley, EW.com, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Smith also is investigating Trump’s efforts to block the results of the 2020 election.
    — Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Spencer S. Hsu, Perry Stein, The Washington Post, Anchorage Daily News, 25 May 2023
  • Last year at this time police had investigated 20 homicides in the city.
    — Harry Harris, Mercury News, 4 Apr. 2025
  • Kwong was placed on paid leave the following spring, as Sheppard Mullin, a law firm hired by the county, spent more than two years investigating him.
    — Rebecca Ellis, Los Angeles Times, 20 Apr. 2024
  • An electrical tower that was being removed to investigate the source of the Eaton fire was damaged while being lifted by a helicopter.
    — Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles Times, 9 May 2025
  • The agency investigated once but found the claims to be unsubstantiated, according to a state child welfare report cited by the outlet.
    — Brenton Blanchet, People.com, 9 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'investigate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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