detective

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word detective. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word detective, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say detective in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word detective you have here. The definition of the word detective will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofdetective, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: détective

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

Ellipsis of detective police.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /dɪˈtɛktɪv/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛktɪv

Noun

detective (plural detectives)

  1. (law enforcement) A police officer who looks for evidence as part of solving a crime; an investigator.
    • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!‎:
      The detective kept them in view. He made his way casually along the inside of the shelter until he reached an open scuttle close to where the two men were standing talking. Eavesdropping was not a thing Larard would have practised from choice, but there were times when, in the public interest, he had to do it, and this was one of them.
  2. A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
    • 1887 Dec., Arthur Conan Doyle, "A Study in Scarlet", Beeton's Christmas Annual, pp. 12–3:
      Sherlock Holmes remarked calmly... "Well, I have a trade of my own. I suppose I am the only one in the world. I'm a consulting detective, if you can understand what that means. Here in London we have lots of Government detectives and lots of private ones. When these fellows are at fault they come to me, and I manage to put them on the right scent. They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able, by the help of my knowledge of the history of crime, to set them straight. There is a strong family resemblence about misdeeds, and if you have all the details of a thousand at your finger ends, it is odd if you can't unravel the thousand and first."
    • 2013 March 25, David Sedaris, "Long Way Home" in The New Yorker:
      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? Wasn't every crime, no matter how complex, solved in a timely fashion by either a professional or a hobbyist? That's the impression you get from British books and TV shows. Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hetty Wainthropp, Inspector George Gently: they come from every class and corner of the country. There’s even Edith Pargeter's Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk who solved crimes in twelfth-century Shrewsbury. No surveillance cameras, no fingerprints, not even a telephone, and still he cracked every case that came his way.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Terms derived from detective

Related terms

Descendants

Translations

Adjective

detective (not comparable)

  1. Employed in detecting.

Asturian

Noun

detective m or f (plural detectives)

  1. detective
    • 2019, Francisco Álvarez, Pasaxeres de la nueche, La Ciudá Negra:
      — Pa correr yá tan los axentes d'uniforme. Ellos son el músculu y los detectives somos el celebru d'esti negociu — afirma apuntando col furabollos a la vidaya.
      "The uniformed cops do the running. They're the muscle and us detectives are the brains of this business", he stated, pointing to his temple with his index finger.

Galician

Noun

detective m (plural detectives)

  1. detective

Further reading

Portuguese

Noun

detective m (plural detectives)

  1. Pre-reform spelling (until Brazil 1943/Portugal 1990) of detetive. Still used in countries where the agreement hasn't come into effect; may occur as a sporadic misspelling.

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English detective.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /deteɡˈtibe/
  • Rhymes: -ibe
  • Syllabification: de‧tec‧ti‧ve

Noun

detective m or f by sense (plural detectives, feminine detective or detectiva, feminine plural detectives or detectivas)

  1. detective

Usage notes

  • detective may be masculine or feminine, but the less common detectiva exists for female detectives as well.

Derived terms

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia