suspect
Americanverb (used with object)
-
suspects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
suspected,
past participle, past
-
suspecting
present participle
-
to believe to be guilty, false, counterfeit, undesirable, defective, bad, etc., with little or no proof.
to suspect a person of murder.
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to doubt or mistrust.
I suspect his motives.
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to believe to be the case or to be likely or probable; surmise.
I suspect his knowledge did not amount to much.
- Synonyms:
- suppose, conjecture, guess
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to have some hint or foreknowledge of.
I think she suspected the surprise.
verb (used without object)
-
suspects,
present (3rd person singular)
-
suspected,
past participle, past
-
suspecting
present participle
noun
-
suspects
plural
-
a person who is suspected, especially one suspected of a crime, offense, or the like.
-
an animal or thing that is suspected to be the cause of something bad: The cause of the disease was not confirmed, but the suspect was an insect.
Investigators focused on faulty wiring as a suspect in the house fire.
The cause of the disease was not confirmed, but the suspect was an insect.
adjective
idioms
verb
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(tr) to believe guilty of a specified offence without proof
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(tr) to think false, questionable, etc
she suspected his sincerity
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(tr; may take a clause as object) to surmise to be the case; think probable
to suspect fraud
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(intr) to have suspicion
noun
adjective
Usage
What does sus mean? Sus is a shortening of suspicious or suspect. In slang, it has the sense of "questionable" or "shady."
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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nonsuspectnoun
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suspecternoun
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presuspectverb (used with object)
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suspectibleadjective
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suspectlessadjective
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unsuspectingadjective
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unsuspectinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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suspectsimple
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suspectssimple
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have suspectedperfect
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has suspectedperfect
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am suspectingprogressive
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are suspectingprogressive
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is suspectingprogressive
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have been suspectingperfect progressive
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has been suspectingperfect progressive
Past
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suspectedsimple
-
had suspectedperfect
-
was suspectingprogressive
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were suspectingprogressive
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had been suspectingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of suspect
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English (adjective) from Latin suspectus, past participle of suspicere “to look up, look and see, regard with mistrust,” equivalent to su- “under, below, beneath” + -spicere, combining form of specere “to see, observe, keep an eye on, take into consideration”; (verb) partly from the adjective, partly from Middle French suspecter “to hold suspect,” or directly from Latin suspectāre, frequentative of suspicere; see su-
Explanation
A suspect is a person who is believed to be guilty of a crime. If you leave the scene of a murder with blood on your hands and a weapon in your pocket, you’re likely to become a prime suspect. If others believe you have committed a crime, you are a suspect. The word can also be used as a verb and an adjective. To suspect someone of something is to believe that they probably did it. Do you ever suspect your parents of taking some of your Halloween candy? If something such as someone's excuse or motive is suspect, it seems a bit off. That bad-smelling piece of fish is suspect — you'd better not eat it.
Vocabulary lists containing suspect
Unit 3: Compelling Evidence
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Common Senses: Spec, Spect, Spic ("Look")
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Bridge to Terabithia
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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.
See Examples For:
Cruz and other researchers suspect that additional species once existed but left remains too delicate to survive long enough to be discovered.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
The agendas also contained a distorted periodic table, unreadable phases of the moon and other garbled educational material that parents suspect may have been created using artificial intelligence.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
Experts suspect KD1 is female but aren’t certain.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
The obvious suspect is an undiagnosed injury, even if Skenes said at the All-Star break that he wasn’t hurt and that the dip in velocity didn’t bother him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
“They suspect Mum is trying to contact us.”
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
The suspects are being held in custody at various police stations in Lusaka.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
Staffed by a combination of HSI experts and outside consultants, it developed software tools to comb the data for information that could help agents pursue criminal suspects.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
The G.L.O.V.E. delivers a shock that is not as strong as that of a Taser, another device used by law enforcement to subdue suspects.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
You have myself, Kelvin Washington, alongside my usual suspects, Yvonne Villarreal, Mark Olsen as well.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
I can’t tell, because my back’s to him, whether he’s really asking or whether he suspects something.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
Percentage of reports the Treasury Department received flagging transactions tied to suspected human trafficking were filed by money-services businesses, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said in an alert published Thursday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
Wildlife officials could not determine the cause of the injuries but suspected that a vehicle may have struck the cougar, as collisions are among the leading causes of wildlife mortalities in L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Since the start of the year, nine shadow fleet tankers suspected of circumventing sanctions have been seized around the EU.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
The digital affairs ministry's statement was in response to a Financial Times article this week that identified Taiwan as the target of an autonomous AI attack by suspected Chinese hackers.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
But knowing the bayou, many suspected she would have encountered poisonous snakes, alligators, and uneven, slippery slopes.
From "Split the Sky" by Marie Arnold
Movies rarely venture so far into the hearts of ordinary people trying to do their best but suspecting they have made a great many irreparable mistakes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
When you start suspecting that your position might be terminated, it’s easy to mentally check out.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 12, 2026
Owners of the private collection contacted Dr Goldring after reading her book on Hilliard, suspecting the tiny painting in their collection to be of the renowned miniaturist.
From BBC ● Sep. 8, 2025
This policy, she explains, “tramples the constitutional requirement that officers must have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.”
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2025
Now I know what I’ve been suspecting: as far as this thing is concerned, she is powerless.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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.
