scan

/skæn/
/skæn/
IPA guide

Other forms: scanned; scanning; scans

When you scan a subway car to see if your friend is on it, your eyes pass quickly across the riders. When you get a scan of your knee at the doctor's office, a much more detailed picture is taken, showing your bones, tendons, and muscles.

You might need a medical scan if you are in an accident or have a terrible headache. One of the most common kinds of scans is performed on a pregnant woman, to check out the size and health of her fetus. This kind of scan is called an "ultrasound" or a "sonogram." These use sound waves to take a picture of the inside of a person's body.

Definitions of scan
  1. verb
    examine minutely or intensely
    “the surgeon scanned the X-ray”
    see moresee less
    types:
    glass
    scan (game in the forest) with binoculars
    type of:
    examine, see
    observe, check out, and look over carefully or inspect
  2. verb
    make a wide, sweeping search of
    “The beams scanned the night sky”
    see moresee less
    type of:
    search
    subject to a search
  3. verb
    examine hastily
    “She scanned the newspaper headlines while waiting for the taxi”
    synonyms: glance over, rake, run down, skim
    see moresee less
    type of:
    examine, see
    observe, check out, and look over carefully or inspect
  4. verb
    read metrically
    “scan verses”
    see moresee less
    type of:
    declaim, recite
    recite in elocution
  5. verb
    conform to a metrical pattern
    see moresee less
    type of:
    conform
    be similar, be in line with
  6. noun
    the act of scanning; systematic examination of a prescribed region
    “he made a thorough scan of the beach with his binoculars”
    see moresee less
    type of:
    examination, scrutiny
    the act of examining something closely (as for mistakes)
  7. verb
    move a light beam over; in electronics, to reproduce an image
    see moresee less
    type of:
    displace, move
    cause to move or shift into a new position or place, both in a concrete and in an abstract sense
  8. verb
    obtain data from magnetic tapes
    synonyms: read
    see moresee less
    types:
    misread
    read or interpret wrongly
    type of:
    construe, interpret, see
    make sense of; assign a meaning to
  9. noun
    an image produced by scanning
    “he analyzed the brain scan”
    synonyms: CAT scan
    see moresee less
    type of:
    icon, ikon, image, picture
    a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface
Pronunciation
US
/skæn/
UK
/skæn/
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DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘scan'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors. Send us feedback
Word Family

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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words

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