exploratory

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UK/ɛkˈsplɒɹ.ə.tə.ɹi/UK/ɛkˈsplɒɹ.ə.tɹi/UK/ɪkˈ-/Canada, US/ɛkˈsploɹ.əˌtoɹ.i/

adjective

Serving to explore or investigate.

Less commonScrabble 23

Meanings

adjectiveexploratory (not comparable)
  1. not comparableServing to explore or investigate.
    2 more examples

    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.

    2017 June 26, Alexis Petridis, “Glastonbury 2017 verdict: Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Lorde, Stormzy and more”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2018

    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.

    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, archived from the original on 22 Nov 2021
nounexploratory (plural exploratories)

plural exploratories

Synonyms & antonyms

adjectiveserving in or intended for exploration or discovery

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
  2. Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
  3. Proto-Italic*eks
  4. Latinex
  5. Latinex-
  6. Latinplōrō
  7. Latinexplōrō
  8. Middle Frenchexplorer
  9. Englishexplore
  10. Englishexploratory

From explore + -atory.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Catalan exploratori
  • exploratoriTranslations
French exploratoire
  • exploratoireTranslations
German erforschend, untersuchend
  • erforschendTranslations
  • untersuchendTranslations
Polish badawczy
  • badawczyTranslations
Portuguese exploratório
  • exploratórioTranslations
Spanish exploratorio
  • exploratorioTranslations
Cite this entry
APA

exploratory. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exploratory

MLA

“exploratory.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exploratory. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exploratory,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exploratory.

Source: exploratory on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.