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

Xi’s draconian rule has persuaded even many CCP members that the system that produced China’s recent precipitous decline in prosperity, status, and individual happiness is one that deserves reexamination. —Matt Pottinger, Foreign Affairs, 10 Apr. 2024

But despite outrage from human rights groups and criticism from the United Nations, the United States and Catholic Church officials, there has been no reexamination of this case by Indian authorities. —Lauren Frayer, NPR, 2 June 2024

In its reexamination of entrenched narratives about the expropriation of Native land, Michael Witgen’s work is changing how Native people are situated in the arc of North American history. —Francisco Cantú, The New York Review of Books, 30 May 2024

Seventy years later, the bone is getting a reexamination. —Julia Binswanger, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 May 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1604, in the meaning defined at sense 1