detective work
Americannoun
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the professional activities of a detective; the activities involved in uncovering clues and making deductions leading to the identification of suspects in a crime.
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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.
"It took diligent detective work from Ryleigh before we understood what we were seeing," he says.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026
He also had a photographic memory, which came in very useful for his later detective work around the thefts.
From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2026
It’s classic deductive detective work meets Japanese comfort fare.
From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2025
Which they do, of course, but only after a lot of fine detective work and loads of compelling character development.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025
I said, “I was doing detective work trying to find out who killed Wellington.”
From "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon
Definitions 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.
