detective
Syllables: de·tec·tive/dɪˈtɛktɪv/
detective noun: a police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.
Noun
detective (plural detectives)
- A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.
- He worked as a detective with the agency for five years.
- The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he...1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!
- A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
- […] Sherlock Holmes remarked calmly. […] "Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I'm a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is. Here in London we have lots of Government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault they...1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […])...
- Had they responded this way in France or America, this wouldn't have surprised me, but wasn't everyone in England supposed to be a detective? Wasn't every crime, no matter how complex, solved in a timely fashion by either a professional or a hobbyist? That's the impression you get from British...2013 March 25, David Sedaris, "Long Way Home" in The New Yorker
- A work of detective fiction.
- Read books that are of interest to you (no matter what kinds of, I, for instance, read detectives, help a lot), try not to use Engl-Russ. Dict. while reading; […]1997 May 15, Mourzenko, “”, in relcom.humor (Usenet)
- I very^([sic]) like classic Russian literature. Besides it I read detectives by Chase, newspapers and magazines with news and interesting topics.1999 October 13, [Anastassia] <nasta123@mail.ru>, “Looking for prince...”, in soc.penpals (Usenet)
Adjective
detective (not comparable)
- Employed in detecting.
Verb
detective (third-person singular simple present detectives, present participle detectiving, simple past and past participle detectived)
- To be or act as or like a detective.
- The terminal server manager has to go detectiving around every so often collecting up these ``idle osf users and manually log out their ports on the terminal server.1995 November 1, System Janitor, “LAT sessions hang...”, in comp.unix.osf.osf1 (Usenet)
- Unfortunately for classics in England, the time when Erasmus and his mates got detectiving and sorted out more or less how classical Greek and Latin had been pronounced just preceded the great Vowel Shift in English, so when all the English long vowels made their exciting trek round the mouth they...1998 May 3, Colin Fine, “Seezer or Kaiser - Spoken Latin”, in sci.lang (Usenet)
- To investigate or find information about (someone or something) as or like a detective.
- But, what is a jew^([sic]) doing giving a child the protection of a Catholic umbella during WWII? And that the country wasn't mentioned, is curious, or that nationality. Polish Jew? German Jew? etc. for this information has merit for detectiving the papers.1998 January 4, jeanne khan, quoting Mr. G., “sources for poems/disc. of G and J/your”, in rec.arts.poems (Usenet)
- Next, I called my mother. I called up, again detectiving the phone number (I haven't had contact with them for nine years, my decision but no thought to them) and the father answered the phone. I almost vomited. You know what strangely broke my heart? That I couldn't recognize the voice of my own...2000 April 19, Poettttt, “It was a dark and stormy night.... a long Empost.”, in alt.support.eating-disord (Usenet)
detective meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
detective in Hindi
- police officer who looks for evidence
- अन्वेषक anveṣak, जाँचकर्ता jā̃ckartā, जासूस jāsūs, गुप्तचर guptacar, खोजी khojī
- person employed to find information
- गुप्तचर guptacar
detective in Tamil
- துப்பறிவாளர்
detective in Urdu
- police officer who looks for evidence
- جاسُوس jāsūs, کھوجی khojī, سُراغی surāġī, سُراغ رَساں surāġ rasā̃
detective in Bengali
- police officer who looks for evidence
- গোয়েন্দা gōẇenda, গুপ্তচর guptocor
More languagesFewer languages
- detective in Telugu
- డిటెక్టివ్, డీటెక్టివ్
- detective in Malayalam
- തുമ്പുണ്ടാക്കാൻ സമർത്ഥമായ, വെളിപ്പെടുത്താൻ കഴിവുള്ള, കുറ്റംകണ്ടുപിടിക്കുന്ന, കുറ്റാന്വേഷകൻ
- detective in Kannada
- ತುಬ್ಬುಗಾರ, ತುಬ್ಬುಕಾರ, ಕಂಡುಹಿಡಿಗ, ಪತ್ತೇದಾರಿ
- detective in Punjabi
- ਜਸੂਸ jasūs
- detective in Gujarati
- જાસૂસ jāsūs
- detective in Odia
- ଡିଟେକଟିଭ୍, ଡିଟେକ୍ଟିଭ୍, ଡିଟେକଟିଭ
- detective in Nepali
- जासूस, जासूसलाई
- detective in Pashto
- موشک mošak, سراغي sorāǧi
- detective in Tagalog
- tiktik
- detective in Arabic
- مُحَقِّق muḥaqqiq
- detective in Malay
- detektif, mata gelap, penyiasat
- detective in Indonesian
- detektif
- detective in Thai
- นักสืบ nák-sʉ̀ʉp
- detective in Vietnamese
- thám tử, thám tử tư
- detective in Myanmar
- စုံထောက် cumhtauk
Examples of detective in a sentence
- I'm a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is.1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a...
- Had they responded this way in France or America, this wouldn't have surprised me, but wasn't everyone in England supposed to be a detective?2013 March 25, David Sedaris, "Long Way Home" in The New Yorker
- Gene, you are right: never heard of Douglas Adams. (Nor do I read detectives, except one or two as a youth).2003 April 19, pieter, “Gene Ward Smith Shrine now online!!!”, in talk.religion.course-miracle (Usenet):
- So I'm going to tell him _exactly_ where "up here" is as soon as I have "detectived" it.2001 December 30, Johnny Johnson, “Venom Take 2”, in alt.hi-po.big-block-ford-mercury (Usenet):
Synonyms of detective
- inspector
- police detective
- sleuth
- DT
- Det
- Det.
- private detective
- private investigator
- bloodhound
- Dick Tracy
12 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of detective
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | detectives |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | detectives |
| present participle | detectiving |
| past participle | detectived |
| past | detectived |
Origin of detective
The adjective is from Classical Latin dētēct-, past participial stem of dētegō (“to detect”), + -ive. By surface analysis, detect + -ive. Noun sense 1 is an ellipsis of detective policeman, detective officer, or a similar construction. The later more general noun sense 2 was derived by extension. The verb is also from the noun. Noun sense 3 (“a work of detective fiction”) is a semantic loan from Dutch detective and Russian детекти́в (detektív), both from English.
Words formed from detective
- antidetective
- cyberdetective
- detective gag
- detectivelike
- detective story
- detective work
- detectiving
- dogtective
- house detective
- detective chief inspector
- detective chief superintendent
- detective constable
- detective inspector
- detective sergeant
- detective superintendent
- woman detective constable
- nondetective
- private detective
- store detective
- stump detective
- superdetective
Phrases with detective
Words that rhyme with detective
- projective
- subjective
- effective
- objective
- prospective
- reflective
- collective
- connective
- defective
- directive
- respective
- selective
28 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- injective
- elective
- irrespective
- perfective
- retrospective
- affective
- bijective
- corrective
- erective
- ineffective
- inflective
- intellective
- intersubjective
- protective
- refective
- advective
- convective
- deflective
- ejective
- imperfective
- infective
- inspective
- introspective
- overprotective
- rejective
- surjective
- unreflective
- unselective
Questions about detective
- What does detective mean?
- Detective means a police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.
- What is detective in Hindi?
- Detective in Hindi is अन्वेषक (anveṣak), जाँचकर्ता (jā̃ckartā), जासूस (jāsūs). See Detective meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use detective in a sentence?
- I'm a consulting detective, if you can understand what that is.
- What part of speech is detective?
- Detective can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce detective?
- Detective is pronounced /dɪˈtɛktɪv/.
- What is the plural of detective?
- The plural of detective is detectives.
Words near detective in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: detective (page history and authors); detective (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detective (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); detective (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); detective (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਜਸੂਸ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); જાસૂસ (Gujarati) (page history and authors); detective (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); detective (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-detective.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-detective.wav.
Cite this entry: “detective.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/detective. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.