Word.ws English Dictionary

private eye

private eye noun: a private personal detective, employed to gather information about someone.

Noun

private eye (plural private eyes)

  1. (idiomatic) A private personal detective, employed to gather information about someone.

Synonyms of private eye

Forms of private eye

pluralprivate eyes

Origin of private eye

From private investigator and its abbreviation PI, through the homophonic term eye in place of "I", and the use of "eye" as a reference to surveillance.

Questions about private eye

What does private eye mean?
Private eye means a private personal detective, employed to gather information about someone.
What part of speech is private eye?
Private eye is a noun.
What is the plural of private eye?
The plural of private eye is private eyes.

Words near private eye in the dictionary

  1. private enterprise number
  2. private enterprise numbers
  3. private enterprises
  4. private equities
  5. private equity
  6. private eye
  7. private eyes
  8. private first class
  9. private good
  10. private goods
  11. private house

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: private eye (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: En-au-private eye.ogg.

Cite this entry: “private eye.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/private_eye. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.