detective work
Americannoun
-
the professional activities of a detective; the activities involved in uncovering clues and making deductions leading to the identification of suspects in a crime.
-
any activity that involves making careful observations or seeking out facts that are difficult to access, analyzing the information, and drawing conclusions.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The actress and Fielder go to Evans’s home, where she attempts to do some detective work of her own.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
The revelation inspired a small genre of internet consumer detective work.
From Salon ● Oct. 3, 2026
Using tribal power and rigorous detective work, a family of an army officer in Yemen tries to find out how he was abducted in broad daylight, and what happened to him afterward.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
For O'Connor, the research also demonstrated how much paleontology can resemble detective work.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 11, 2026
I might not have been doing much detective work playing ghost-in-the-graveyard with Flora this past week.
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
