From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishexploratoryex‧plor‧a‧to‧ry /ɪkˈsplɒrətəri $ ɪkˈsplɔːrətɔːri/ adjective FIND OUTdone in order to find out more about something He’s going to have exploratory surgery on his knee.
Examples from the Corpus
exploratory• The operations had been mainly exploratory.• Additional potential risk factors for delayed healing were examined in a subsequent exploratory analysis.• Name-giving is one of the perquisites of leading exploratory dives to vent sites.• As reported, an exploratory meeting already has been held.• The scheme provides awards of up to £2,000 per project for exploratory or pilot research.• The principal aim of this exploratory research is to gain a better understanding of franchising and the franchising decision.• Recently a man I knew had an exploratory study. 