A defect inspection method wherein illumination light having a substantially uniform illumination intensity distribution in a certain direction on the surface of a specimen is radiated onto the surface of the specimen; wherein multiple components of those scattered light beams from the surface of the specimen which are emitted mutually different directions are detected, thereby obtaining corresponding multiple scattered light beam detection signals; wherein the multiple scattered light beam detection signals is subjected to processing, thereby determining the presence of defects; wherein the corresponding multiple scattered light detecting signals is processed with respect to all of the spots determined to be defective by the processing, thereby determining the sizes of defects; and wherein the defect locations on the specimen and the defect sizes are displayed with respect to all of the spots determined to be defective by the processing.