detect
/dɪˈtɛkt/
detect verb: to discover or notice, especially by careful search, examination, or probing.
Verb
detect (third-person singular simple present detects, present participle detecting, simple past and past participle detected)
- To discover or notice, especially by careful search, examination, or probing.
- The forensic examiners detected tiny traces of the poison on the suspect's gloves.
- On entering the room, I immediately detected the smell of gas.
- To work or solve cases as a detective.
- Parker would in all likelihood have done so; he was paid to detect and to do nothing else, and neither his natural gifts nor his education (at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School) prompted him to stray into side-tracks at the beck of an ill-regulated imagination.1926, Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness (Lord Peter Wimsey; 2), T. Fisher Unwin, →ISBN, page 105
- Let me introduce myself: Mike MacAdam, hotel detective. / H-how d-’you do? / Mind if I begin detecting?1978, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, Michael Turner, transl., Tintin in America (The Adventures of Tintin), Egmont, published 2012, →ISBN, page 45
Adjective
detect (not comparable)
detect meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
detect in Hindi
- to detect
- हेरना hernā
detect in Tamil
- to discover or find by careful search, examination, or probing
- கண்டுபிடி kaṇṭupiṭi
detect in Urdu
- فاش کرنا, پہچاننا, پکڑنا, پتہ چلانا, سراغ لگانا
detect in Bengali
- আবিষ্কার করা, দেথিতে পাত্তয়া
More languagesFewer languages
- detect in Malayalam
- ശ്രദ്ധയിൽപ്പെടുക, തെറ്റു കണ്ടുപിടിക്കുക, വെളിപ്പെടുത്തുക, തുമ്പുണ്ടാക്കുക
- detect in Kannada
- ಪತ್ತೆಮಾಡು, ಕಂಡುಹಿಡಿ, ಗೊತ್ತುಮಾಡು, ತುಬ್ಬಿಸು
- detect in Assamese
- ধৰা পেলোৱা dhora pelüa
- detect in Arabic
- كَشَفَ kašafa
- detect in Vietnamese
- phát hiện, dò ra
Examples of detect in a sentence
- Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death.1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons, Their Effects and Detection: A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and Experts, volume I, New...
- In a detective story, a detective detects; an active effort is made to determine who committed a given crime, and detecting the identity of a criminal could not be done until there were detectives.1991, Hillary Waugh, Hillary Waugh's Guide to Mysteries & Mystery Writing Novel, Writer's Digest Books, →ISBN, page 11:
- That aversion is tested when he teams up with Pikachu (voiced by Ryan Reynolds), his father's detecting partner, after the father appears to have been killed in an accident.2019 May 9, Ben Kenigsberg, “'Pokémon Detective Pikachu' Review: A Cat and (Electric) Mouse Game”, in The New York Times, archived from the...
Forms of detect
| third-person singular present | detects |
|---|---|
| present participle | detecting |
| past participle | detected |
| past | detected |
Origin of detect
From Latin detectus, perfect passive participle of detegere (“to uncover or disclose”), from de- + tegere (“to cover”); see tegument, tile, thatch. Sense "to work or solve cases as a detective" a back-formation from detective.
Words formed from detect
Words that rhyme with detect
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- respect
- deflect
- dissect
- expect
- redirect
- suspect
- correct
- defect
- disconnect
- infect
- inflect
- neglect
- resurrect
- unchecked
- abject
- bisect
- deject
- deselect
- genuflect
- incorrect
- inspect
- interject
- introspect
- object
- sect
- wrecked
- conject
- convect
- decked
- elect
- intersect
- necked
- perfect
- prospect
- protect
- recollect
- reconnect
- select
- subject
- trisect
- bandreject
- cathect
- cobra effect
- counterobject
- despect
- disinfect
- disject
- disrespect
Questions about detect
- What does detect mean?
- Detect means to discover or notice, especially by careful search, examination, or probing.
- What is detect in Hindi?
- Detect in Hindi is हेरना (hernā). See Detect meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use detect in a sentence?
- Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death.
- What part of speech is detect?
- Detect can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce detect?
- Detect is pronounced /dɪˈtɛkt/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of detect?
- The past tense of detect is detected.
Words near detect in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: detect (page history and authors); हेरना (Hindi) (page history and authors); detect (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detect (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detect (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detect (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-detect.wav.
Cite this entry: “detect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/detect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.