Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use detail in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

Detail means a part small enough to escape casual notice. Example: “Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.”

Examples of detail by meaning

nounA part small enough to escape casual notice.

  • Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.
  • We missed several important details in the contract.
  • attention to detail

nounA profusion of details.

  • This etching is full of fine detail.
  • Hidden behind thickets of acronyms and gorse bushes of detail, a new great game is under way across the globe.2013 July 19, Timothy Garton Ash, “Where Dr Pangloss meets Machiavelli”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, archived from the...

nounThe small parts that can escape casual notice.

  • Attention to detail was said to be one of the secrets of Gerrard's success as a player.2018 May 4, Tom English, “Steven Gerrard: A 'seriously clever or recklessly stupid' Rangers appointment”, in BBC Sport, archived from the...

nounA part considered trivial enough to ignore.

  • I don't concern myself with the details of accounting.
  • Safety at work is not a mere detail.

nounA person's name, address and other personal information.

  • The arresting officer asked the suspect for his details.

nounA temporary unit or assignment.

  • Frequently members of the small police detail dispatched to the scene joined in.2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 7, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part II. The...

nounAn individual feature, fact, or other item, considered separately from the whole of which it is a part.

  • The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected, but could not prove, and would cite as they took to the streets.2013 June 7, Gary Younge, “Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, archived from...

nounA selected portion of a painting.

  • On the cover of Julia Kristeva's Black Sun: Depression and Melancholia is a detail from a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger, “Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Elizabeth Binzenstock, and Her Two Children, Philip and Catherine.”1992, Janice L. Doane, Devon L. Hodges, From Klein to Kristeva, page 53
  • Shrubbery and the hand of Christ (detail of plate 12)2001, Maryan Wynn Ainsworth, Early Netherlandish Painting at the Crossroads, page 110
  • Eight years later, the outstanding exponent of Memory Painting was herself publicly commemorated by a six-cent postage stamp showing a detail from one of her most patriotic works, July Fourth (1951).2001, Charles Russell, Self-taught Art: The Culture and Aesthetics of American Vernacular Art, page 100

More sentences with detail

  • This large atlas maps the whole world in very great detail.From the entry map
  • She captured the details of the fresco in a series of photographs.From the entry capture
  • Some details got lost in the push to get the project done.From the entry push
  • Not wanting to be pressed for details, public relations gave a wishy-washy answer.From the entry wishy-washy
  • They jointly planned the project in phases, with good detail for the first month.From the entry plan
  • The new manager has a reputation for being a stickler for details.From the entry reputation
  • Having lost the book, he had to trust to his memory for further details.From the entry trust
  • You'll need to focus the microscope carefully in order to capture the full detail of this surface.From the entry focus
  • This variety of fascinating details didn't fall together into an enjoyable, coherent whole.From the entry whole
  • When drawing a scene, first block the main features, and then fill in the detail.From the entry block
  • I wanted to record every detail of what happened, for the benefit of future generations.From the entry record
  • The newspaper is accused of blagging details of the prime minister’s flat purchase from his solicitors.From the entry blag
  • I will send a representative to work out the details of the contract.From the entry representative
  • This is described in more detail in Brown’s book on the subject (q.v.).From the entry q.v.
  • He's garbled the details, but the outline of the story is still pretty clear.From the entry garble
  • Our AcmePay integration allows the accounting ledger to receive details of customer payments automatically.From the entry integration
  • This antique chair has been overpainted to the point that you can't discern the carved details.From the entry overpaint
  • We need to focus on the main topic and ignore irrelevant details.From the entry irrelevant
  • Smith is good at detail, but can't see the forest for the trees.From the entry see the forest for the trees
  • The institution of marriage is present in many cultures but its details vary widely across them.From the entry institution
  • The electron microscope is able to resolve detail at the subatomic level.From the entry subatomic
  • Now that the main problems are out of the way, we can start working on the details.From the entry out of the way
  • Her autobiography gives all the gory details of her many divorces.From the entry gory
  • The photographer decided to zoom in on the details of the flower.From the entry zoom in
  • The model shows the basics, but we still need to flesh out the details.From the entry flesh out
  • I recounted the embarrassing story in detail just to watch him squirm.From the entry squirm

Meaning of detail

  1. noun A part small enough to escape casual notice.
  2. noun A profusion of details.
  3. noun The small parts that can escape casual notice.

Full definition of detail

Questions about detail in a sentence

How do you use detail in a sentence?
Detail is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Note this fine detail in the lower left corner.”
What is a short sentence with detail?
“attention to detail”
What does detail mean?
Detail means a part small enough to escape casual notice.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: detail (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use detail in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/detail. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.