research

The word “research” means careful, systematic study of a subject to discover or confirm facts. In plain terms, careful investigation or study, or to carry that out.

“Research” is pronounced REE-surch (/ˈɹiˌsɝt͡ʃ/ in IPA).

Here is “research” used in a sentence: “Her research on climate change was published in a leading journal.”

Words with a similar meaning to “research” include investigation, exploration, examination, study, inquiry and scrutiny.

Depending on how it is used, “research” can be a noun and a verb.

The word “research” comes from Old French. From Old French recerchier, "to seek out," from re- plus cerchier ("to search").

“Research” is a very common word in modern English, usually learned at around the A2 level.

“Research” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: careful, systematic study of a subject to discover or confirm facts.

Study is the broad activity of learning or examining a subject, often to understand knowledge that already exists. Research is more specific: a careful, systematic investigation aimed at discovering new facts or confirming existing ones. All research involves study, but not all study counts as research, which demands method, evidence, and a genuine question.

Research is commonly divided into basic research, which builds fundamental knowledge, and applied research, which solves practical problems. It is also split by method into quantitative research, using numbers and measurement, and qualitative research, exploring meaning and experience. Fields such as science, medicine, history, and marketing each apply these approaches in their own way.

Research is how reliable knowledge is built and tested. By studying a subject systematically, it separates evidence from guesswork, corrects mistaken beliefs, and supports better decisions in medicine, technology, policy, and everyday life. Without research, claims rest on opinion or tradition alone, and there is no dependable way to confirm what is actually true.

A team testing whether a new drug lowers blood pressure is doing research: they form a question, design a controlled study, gather data, and analyse the results. Reading several sources to write a report, surveying customers, or examining historical documents are equally valid examples, as each is a systematic effort to establish facts.