reexamination

noun

re·​ex·​am·​i·​na·​tion (ˌ)rē-ig-ˌza-mə-ˈnā-shən 

variants or re-examination

plural reexaminations or re-examinations

1

: the act or process of examining something again especially from a different viewpoint

… force a critical reexamination of the premises and standards of existing scholarly work.

—Joan W. Scott

2

law

a

: the act or process of examining a witness in a court of law after the witness has been cross-examined : redirect examination

b

: the review by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office of the validity of a patent being questioned on the basis of prior art

In another type of proceedings, called reexamination, the challenger can trigger rejection of the patent by producing new evidence of prior art—new evidence that the invention was "not novel or was obvious."

—Erik Larson

Synonyms

• reappraisal
• reconsideration
• retrospect
• retrospection
• review

Examples of reexamination in a Sentence

the safety board's reexamination of the accident to see if it could have been prevented

Recent Examples on the Web

Weighing a potential clemency for the brothers from their 1996 sentence of life without parole, Newsom in late February ordered the assessment as part of an overall reexamination of the case. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 17 Apr. 2025

The outcome of that reexamination seems preordained. —Lisa Jarvis, Mercury News, 12 Apr. 2025

No theory, no matter how powerful and storied, is above reexamination. —Paul M. Sutter, Scientific American, 1 Apr. 2025

But what is clear ought to cause a serious reexamination of the traditional equation of technological innovation with healthy markets for jobs. —IEEE Spectrum, 28 Mar. 2011

Word History

First Known Use

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for reexamination

• acclimatisation
• acclimatization
• acidification
• actualization
• annualization
• autocorrelation
• autoregulation
• beatification
• beneficiation
• biodegradation
• biotransformation
• bureaucratization