Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use detective in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, adjective, verb

Detective means a police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator. Example: “He worked as a detective with the agency for five years.”

Examples of detective by meaning

nounA 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.1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!

nounA person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.

  • 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

nounA 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.1997 May 15, Mourzenko, “”, in relcom.humor (Usenet)
  • 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)
  • 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)

verbTo 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)
  • Truthfully, if this guy just wants information, his time is better spent detectiving instead of lawyering.2003 November 2, Chas, “Seriously considering filing lawsuit.....not a joke.”, in misc.legal (Usenet)

verbTo investigate or find information about (someone or something) as or like a detective.

  • 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)
  • 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.2000 April 19, Poettttt, “It was a dark and stormy night.... a long Empost.”, in alt.support.eating-disord (Usenet)
  • Wish I'd been there to try it myself or watch you and hear what you were detectiving.2006 March 16, Polly Esther, “I won!”, in rec.crafts.textiles.quilting (Usenet)

More sentences with detective

  • The detective visited the local pubs fishing around for more information.From the entry fish
  • The detective wired ahead, hoping that the fugitive would be caught at the railway station.From the entry wire
  • The detectives were looking for some clues at the scene of the crime.From the entry clue
  • The detective examined the crime scene, but one clue escaped his notice.From the entry escape
  • Detective novel writers try to keep up the suspense until the last chapter.From the entry chapter
  • His client’s lugubrious expression tipped off the detective that something lurked beneath her optimistic words.From the entry lugubrious
  • The detective was puzzled by the fiendish plot to steal the diamonds.From the entry fiendish
  • The detective read the documents and thought, "Something sure is smelly about this case."From the entry smelly
  • The witness rehearsed the events of the night before for the listening detectives.From the entry rehearse
  • The suspect doubled back through an alley, but the detective stuck to him like glue.From the entry stick to
  • The detective sat inconspicuously in her car, across the parking lot, pretending to read the newspaper.From the entry inconspicuously
  • A detective asking you to buy illegal marijuana for a dying man would be police entrapment.From the entry entrapment
  • Starting with a couple of inconsistencies, the detective began to pull apart his alibi.From the entry pull apart
  • The detectives were trying to identify the big enchilada who controlled the entire criminal network.From the entry big enchilada
  • He was a real-life detective before playing one in the movies.From the entry real-life
  • The detective painstakingly collected clues to piece together what happened that tragic night.From the entry piece together
  • She set the agency's crack team of detectives on the case.From the entry crack team
  • Idly, the detective thought what his next move should be.From the entry think
  • The detective identified him by a distinctive birthmark.From the entry birthmark
  • The detective Sherlock Holmes lodged in Baker Street.From the entry lodge
  • The detective needs verification of your whereabouts last night.From the entry verification
  • While the detective cases the joint, they'll get away.From the entry cases
  • He's the best when it comes to detective fiction.From the entry come to
  • The sharp-eyed detective noticed things the ordinary patrolman missed.From the entry sharp-eyed
  • There was no traceable evidence left when the detectives arrived.From the entry traceable
  • I spent the day lying around reading a detective novel.From the entry lie around
  • Having preestablished that the murder weapon did not belong to the hotel, the detective widened her field of enquiry.From the entry preestablish
  • We did some detective work and found out that the water was getting in through a cracked pipe.From the entry detective work
  • The detectives broke the Hamptons murder.From the entry break

Meaning of detective

  1. noun A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.
  2. noun A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
  3. noun A work of detective fiction.

Full definition of detective

Questions about detective in a sentence

How do you use detective in a sentence?
Detective is used as a noun, adjective and verb. For example: “He worked as a detective with the agency for five years.”
What is a short sentence with detective?
“The detective kept them in view.”
What does detective mean?
Detective means a police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: detective (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.

Last updated:

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