scan

The word “scan” means to look over something quickly, often searching for particular information. In plain terms, to look over something quickly or thoroughly, whether it's a page, a document being digitised, or a medical image.

“Scan” is pronounced skan (/skæn/ in IPA).

Here is “scan” used in a sentence: “She scanned the headlines before heading to work.”

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

The word “scan” comes from Late Latin. From Late Latin scandere, "to scan verse" (originally about checking a poem's metre), from Latin scandō, "to climb, rise.".

“Scan” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Scan” has 4 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: to look over something quickly, often searching for particular information.

Scan carries both senses, and context shows which is meant. You can scan a page quickly in search of a name or a price, but a machine or doctor scans something by examining it closely and systematically, as in a security scan or a medical scan.

In reading skills, skimming means reading quickly to get the general idea of a text, while scanning means running your eyes over it in search of one particular piece of information. You skim a news article for the gist, but you scan a timetable for a specific train time.

In everyday medical language, scan is a general word for an imaging test and for the image it produces, covering procedures such as CT, MRI and ultrasound scans. An X-ray is one specific technique, and a CT scan actually uses X-rays taken from many angles to build a more detailed picture.

Yes. Scanning a document means converting it into digital form, and phone apps that photograph and process a page are doing exactly that. The verb applies to dedicated desktop scanners and, by extension, to any device that captures a document digitally.