exploratory

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ

Proto-Indo-European *-s

Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs

Proto-Italic *eks

Latin ex

Latin ex-

Latin plōrō

Latin explōrōder.

Middle French explorerder.

English explore

Latin -atoriusbor.

English -atory

English exploratory

From explore + -atory.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɛkˈsplɒɹ.ə.tə.ɹi/, /ɛkˈsplɒɹ.ə.tɹi/, /ɪkˈ-/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ɛkˈsploɹ.əˌtoɹ.i/, /ɪkˈ-/
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ɪkˈsplɔɹ.ə.tə.ɹi/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /əkˈsplɒɹ.ə.tə.ɹi/, [əkˈsplɔ̟ɹ.ə.tə.ɹi], /ekˈsplɒɹ.ə.tɹi/, [ekˈsplɔ̟ɹ.ə.tɹi]

Adjective

exploratory (not comparable)

1. Serving to explore or investigate.
   • 2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 March 2018:

     Meanwhile, for those who doubted the sheer breadth of music Glastonbury offers, a short walk took you from Thundercat’s exploratory, spaced-out take on jazz-funk – where the smooth sound of yacht rock crashed into extended passages of improvisation to thrilling effect – to the aforementioned Craig David, clad entirely in white and padding out his set by the simple expedient of playing other people’s records and singing along to them, and thence to Liam Gallagher on the comeback trail.

   • 2021 July 2, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Alta Spells, Francesca Giuliani-Hoffman, “Firm held off on repairs because of stability issues in months before Surfside building collapse”, in CNN‎^[2], Atlanta, Ga.: Warner Bros. Discovery, archived from the original on 22 November 2021:

     Among other work done, according to the letter: CPR replaced the bottom of a deteriorating stair column base with hollow steel structural sections; conducted exploratory demolition on the underside of an eave that required “removal and reconstruction”; and removed all loose “cracked, spalled, deteriorated, and delaminated concrete” and damaged stucco from the underside of balcony eaves on 114 of the building’s 136 units, the letter said.

Derived terms

• exploratorily
• exploratoriness
• exploratory committee
• nonexploratory
• unexploratory

Translations

Translations

• Catalan: exploratori
• French: exploratoire (fr)
• German: erforschend (de), untersuchend (de)
• Polish: badawczy (pl)
• Portuguese: exploratório
• Spanish: exploratorio

Noun

exploratory (plural exploratories)

1. An exploration or investigation.