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

• review
• reconsideration
• retrospect
• reappraisal

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

Last week, Republican lawmakers in the U.S. Committee on Natural Resources argued at an oversight meeting that the Endangered Species Act was an overreach of federal authority and an ambiguous statute, as part of a broader reexamination of conservation laws. —Chicago Tribune, 10 Mar. 2025

What is apparent is that the resentencing hearing, which will end up with parole board eventually, is exactly a month before the individual June 13 reexamination hearings for each brother before the parole board that Gov. Newsom ordered back in February. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 9 May 2025

At this point, either the resentencing hearing or the reexamination could become moot. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 9 May 2025

Such reexaminations have drawn scorn in recent years amid ongoing culture wars. —Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY, 6 Mar. 2025

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