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case study

case study

36 3.8
A careful study of one person, group or situation for research and teaching
  • noun
  • /ˈkeɪs ˈstʌdi/
translation icon : estudio de caso
  • The professor assigned us a case study to examine the effects of climate change on coastal cities.
  • present a case study
  • use a case study
  • examine a case study

Maybe a more extreme case study from your practice that you've seen.

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Examples

  • For example, both our case studies were set in large, urban areas with many students affected by poverty.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Using this approach, we examine two case studies of CBITS implementation.

    Academic text (2011)
  • So we'll move on from the case studies of Paris and London, which are classic.

  • The electric car's kind of an interesting case study.

  • Congress called the Afghanistan contract a case study in all that is wrong with the government's procurement process.

  • The team wrote case studies for each participant, which became helpful in the analysis.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Deborah is a fascinating case study.

  • In the New Orleans case study, school-level factors played a more significant role.

    Academic text (2011)
  • The researcher presented a detailed analysis in her case study on childhood education.

  • For my final project, I chose to conduct a case study on the impact of social media on teenagers.

Synonyms

investigation
vscase study
2.9

A careful search for the truth about something

is an in-depth analysis of one instance rather than a process
study
vscase study
  • Specialized
2.1

A report that gives the results of research

focuses on one person, group, or situation in great detail

How Detailed

case study
36 3.8
brief
67 4.2
summing up
  • Formal
4 4.4

Surface Forms

case study singular
case studies plural

Morphology

case + study

The meaning 'a detailed analysis of a particular person, group, or situation' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'case' (a particular instance or subject) with 'study' (an investigation). This noun+noun compositional pattern is common in English and cross-linguistically (e.g., Spanish 'estudio de caso', French 'étude de cas'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.

Etymology

Case study comes from the words case, meaning one real example like a patient or a legal case, and study, meaning a careful, close look. Imagine a researcher following one person's situation closely and writing down everything, so case study means 'a detailed look at one person, group, or situation'.