private investigator

noun

1. private detective. PI, p.i., P.I.

Word History and Origins

Origin of private investigator¹

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

Mr Sherborne added that a separate record allegedly showed a journalist commissioning a private investigator to provide a "mobile phone conversion" related to Catherine and phone numbers from a "family and friends" list.

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Carlyle plays former Metropolitan Police detective Dave Cook who investigates the unsolved murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.

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The allegations at the High Court include claims that private investigators working for the Daily Mail tapped Baroness Lawrence's home phone and hacked her voicemails.

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"We have hired private investigators and there have been sightings of him, but we have not been given any hard evidence of a sort of residence or location in a certain place," the liquidator says.

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Before becoming swept up in the “Stop the Steal” movement, Honey had no experience in the federal government or as an election administrator, working as a Pennsylvania-based private investigator.

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Related Words

• P.I. 
• inquiry agent www.thesaurus.com
• private detective 
• private dick www.thesaurus.com
• private eye 
• private investigator 
• sleuth