How to use sleuth in a sentence

14 example sentences · noun, verb

Sleuth means a detective. Example: ““This is a great piece of sleuth work for sure, and it significantly advances efforts to understand the origin of SARS-CoV-2,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study.”

Examples of sleuth by meaning

nounA detective.

“This is a great piece of sleuth work for sure, and it significantly advances efforts to understand the origin of SARS-CoV-2,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study.2021 June 23, Carl Zimmer, quoting Michael Worobey, “Scientist Finds Early Virus Sequences That Had Been Mysteriously Deleted”, in The New...

verbTo act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime, or, more generally, to solve a mystery.

We must discover where he lives, what he does — sleuth him, in fact!1922, Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary

nounA group of bears.

If these dainty adventurers weren’t being chased by a sleuth of bears or bogeys, they were being captured by Gypsies or thieves.1995, Bobbie Ann Mason, The Girl Sleuth, page 13
From the darkness came the howls of routs of wolves and bands of coyotes, the rumbling growls of a sleuth of bears or the bugles of a gang of elk.2007, Elinor DeWire, The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses, page 200

More sentences with sleuth

Some scientifically minded sleuths hoped that the optograms of murder victims might betray their killers!2001, Stanley Finger, Origins of Neuroscience: A History of Explorations Into Brain Function, page 82. From the entry optogram
Three troopers guided by a masked man and a sleuth dog pursued him.1991, Michael Brander, Tales of the Borders, page 132. From the entry sleuth dog
On TV, sleuthing and romance go together like Steed and Mrs.1984 June 26, Joyce Millman, “Romancing the Steele: While turning down Scarecrow and Mrs. King”, in The Boston Phoenix, Boston, Mass.…. From the entry investigatress
“We're a team, sleuth times two, boogaloo.2014, Jaqueline Girdner, Murder My Deer, Open Road Media, →ISBN. From the entry boogaloo
The girl sleuth in a retro-pomo pop-culture winkfest that has everything but a good mystery, which was all it needed.2007 June 29, The New York Times, “Movie Guide and Film Series”, in New York Times. From the entry winkfest
I was told she was the finest sleuth dog on the borders, but thus far she's proven herself useless.2002, Jen Holling, Tamed by your desire, page 25. From the entry sleuth dog
Playing amateur sleuth . . . frees her wicked tongue to spill the beans about her neighbors’ secret vices and adulterous affairs.2007 February 4, Marilyn Stasio, “Murder Most Suburban”, in New York Times, retrieved 12 May 2014. From the entry wicked tongue
Harry ducked in dummy, hoping for the ace bare with Holmes but the sleuth duced as well and the defense cashed two hearts.September 4, 1980, Louis Egan Steele, “Bridge expert plays his cards right”, in Monrovia News-Post, page 49. From the entry ace bare
Robert Montgomery as a European prince turned detective was inevitably the most gentlemanly of all sleuths; with Louis Hayward and, in a Dr.1972, William K. Everson, The Detective in Film, Secaucus, N.J.: The Citadel Press, →ISBN, page 102. From the entry Dr. Watson-ish
The amateur sleuths of the Donovan committee, many of them former socialite appeasers from the state department, follow the same practices as the superdicks in the Army and Navy.1942 November 30, Drew Pearson, “'Junior Gestapo' Listens in On Army and Navy Telephone Calls”, in St. Petersburg Times. From the entry superdick

Meaning of sleuth

noun A detective.
noun A sleuthhound; a bloodhound.
noun An animal’s trail or track.

Full definition of sleuth

Questions about sleuth in a sentence

How do you use sleuth in a sentence?: Sleuth is used as a noun and verb. For example: ““This is a great piece of sleuth work for sure, and it significantly advances efforts to understand the origin of SARS-CoV-2,” said Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the study.”
What is a short sentence with sleuth?: ““We're a team, sleuth times two, boogaloo.”
What does sleuth mean?: Sleuth means a detective.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sleuth (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: 2026-09-02

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