exams

1. 1
   nouncolloquial

   Plural of exam.

   The exams covered everything from the whole semester.

   She studied for weeks before her final exams.

   Note

   A clipping of examination, informal in origin, which has become the usual short word when the meaning is a test. It also turns up in compound terms. The same spelling does double duty as the verb form, so context decides: in "the doctor exams patients" it is a verb, while in "the exams were hard" it is this plural noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of exam. Rare and nonstandard: examines is the usual word.

   Note

   The verb behind this form is examine cut short, so "he exams the recruits" means "he examines the recruits." The -s appears only with a singular third-person subject: the vet exams, but the vets exam. The full verb examine is the safer choice in formal writing, since the clipped noun it travels with is marked informal.

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