Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Exploratory \Ex*plor"a*to*ry\, a. [L. exploratorius.]
Serving or intended to explore; searching; examining;
explorative.
--Sir H. Wotton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
mid-15c., from Latin exploratorius "belonging to scouts," from explorator "scout," from explorare "investigate, examine" (see explore). Alternative explorative is from 1738; explorational is from 1889.
Wiktionary
a. Serving to explore or investigate n. An exploration or investigation
WordNet
adj. serving in or intended for exploration or discovery; "an exploratory operation"; "exploratory reconnaisance"; "digging an exploratory well in the Gulf of Mexico"; "exploratory talks between diplomats" [syn: explorative] [ant: nonexploratory]
Wikipedia
Exploratory may refer to:
- Exploration, the act of searching or traveling by land, sea, air or space for the purpose of discovery of resources or information
- Exploratory committee, in United States politics, an organization that tests the feasibility of a potential candidate running for an elected office
- Exploratory data analysis, an approach to analyzing data for the purpose of formulating hypotheses worth testing
- Exploratory engineering, a term that describes the process of making models of systems that are not feasible with current technologies
- Exploratory (museum), a hands-on science museum in Bristol, from 1987 to 1999
- Exploratory research, a type of research conducted for a problem that has not been clearly defined
- Exploratory search a specialization of information exploration used by searchers who have difficulties with the domain or achieving their goal
- Exploratory surgery, a surgery performed to find a diagnosis for an ailment, improvements in imaging technology have reduced their usage
- Exploratory testing, an approach to software testing that is concisely described as simultaneous learning, test design and test execution
- Space Solar Power Exploratory Research and Technology program, research conducted on the feasibility of solar power beamed from space
The Exploratory, Bristol, was the first regional hands-on science museum in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1987 by Richard Gregory, professor of neuropsychology at Bristol University.
From 1987 to 1989 it was housed in the city's Victoria Rooms. In 1989 it moved to Bristol's historic old railway station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
The Exploratory closed in 1999. Its successor was At-Bristol, a larger science centre which opened in 2000 at a new site as part of the regeneration of the historical Floating Harbour.
Usage examples of "exploratory".
The experimental voyager Eric de Bisschop added a refinement to his version of this theory by suggesting that the voyagers, on initial exploratory probes to the north and south and back again, noted that they had been displaced by currents in relation to the home islands.
The exploratory surgery had turned into a mastectomy without her knowledge.
Chagrin Falls, Ohio, does not, as the name would seem to suggest, have any connection with some early exploratory setback, but is simply a misrendering of the surname of Francois Seguin, an early French trader who settled along the river from which the town takes its name.
From an experience gained in the case of the President, Romme strongly recommends exploratory celiotomy in all penetrating wounds of the liver.
The first exploratory probe indicates that the M-4 is occupied and has an old Hiver ship in orbit.
They had also flown human scientists on exploratory missions to other planets: Mars, Mercury, even the moons of Jupiter.
I phoned Landsdoff at the New Institute for Advanced Study, about the possibility of utilizing the pair-production nuclear photoeffect for exploratory work in biophysics.
They traveled steadily, making no exploratory side trips or hunting forays, no early stops to relax or enjoy Pleasures.
There would be exploratories later, to unvisited stars, to unknown dangers.
An exploratory group had crashed on Old Earth when the humans still thought it a flat land on the back of a giant turtle or somesuch, and they had managed to survive there, even be worshiped by some of the primitive humans as gods or godlike creatures.
I cannot recommend further exploratory voyages among the outer starfields of the Cluster.
Military Form, a gross, flabby, rat-size caterpillar, went down, then rounded the first corner, where the exploratory module was unscrewing the clamps on a maintenance port that led into the cable area behind the walls.
He had study credits for biology and xenobiology, and had passed in the top percentile the survival courses required by the Exploratory Arm of the Fleet.
But the units were built to withstand a good deal of rough usage as well as long periods of idleness, stored in the Exploratory Vessel, so they had been designed to survive under just the circumstances that then prevailed.
They say, the most thorough search was carried out according to strict Spacedep and Alreldep exploratory techniques.