Past tense of detect
regular verb
The past tense of detect is detected. The past participle is also detected.
Forms of detect
| Base form (V1) | detect /dɪˈtɛkt/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | detected /dɪˈtɛktɪd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | detected /dɪˈtɛktɪd/ |
| Present participle | detecting |
| Third person singular | detects |
Detected in a sentence
- 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.
- A single locus governing the petal colour character was detected on the linkage group A2.From the entry character
- The proximity of the heat source allowed it to be detected by the sensor.From the entry proximity
- The detected submarine was tracked by sonar, it was easy once they knew where to look.From the entry detected
Meaning of detect
- verb To discover or notice, especially by careful search, examination, or probing.
- verb To work or solve cases as a detective.
- adjective Detected.
Questions about the past tense of detect
- What is the past tense of detect?
- The past tense of detect is detected.
- What is the past participle of detect?
- The past participle of detect is detected.
- Is detect a regular or irregular verb?
- Detect is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: detect (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of detect.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/detect. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.