noun
adjective
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used in or serving for detection
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serving to detect
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of detective
Explanation
Whether it's a police detective who investigates crimes or a private detective hired to find a missing person, a detective is someone whose job is to find out hard-to-get information. Detective comes from the Latin root detectus meaning to uncover or expose. Detectives detect, or discern and uncover the truth, the way a dog might detect an odor and uncover a bone. Sherlock Holmes, perhaps the most famous detective in fiction, used disguises, deductive reasoning and forensics to solve crimes. "When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth," he famously said.
Vocabulary lists containing detective
Miranda v. Arizona (1966): Syllabus
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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.
A former private detective, Hammett grounded his narrative in a corrupt Montana mining town, replacing the cozy murders of traditional whodunits with a seamier view of vice.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026
One character we haven’t cracked as successfully as our U.K. cousins, however, is the clergyman detective — odd, given our culture’s puritanical bent.
From Salon • Jun. 16, 2026
The bonus was that Ella Maisy Purvis made Patience Evans an endearingly awkward ad-hoc detective during the show’s premiere season.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 11, 2026
A detective constable told Newry Crown Court that Sir Jeffrey was interviewed for a total of four-and-a-half hours.
From BBC • Jun. 8, 2026
Jimmy thought of Carolyn Lewind, a girl in his eighth-grade class whose dad was a detective.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
