detective.
A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.
Meaning & usage
A 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.
A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
A work of detective fiction.
Where this word comes from
The adjective is from Classical Latin dētēct-, past participial stem of dētegō (“to detect”), + -ive. By surface analysis, detect + -ive. Noun sense 1 is an ellipsis of detective policeman, detective officer, or a similar construction. The later more general noun sense 2 was derived by extension. The verb is also from the noun. Noun sense 3 (“a work of detective fiction”) is a semantic loan from Dutch detective and Russian детекти́в (detektív), both from English.
Employed in detecting.
Where this word comes from
The adjective is from Classical Latin dētēct-, past participial stem of dētegō (“to detect”), + -ive. By surface analysis, detect + -ive. Noun sense 1 is an ellipsis of detective policeman, detective officer, or a similar construction. The later more general noun sense 2 was derived by extension. The verb is also from the noun. Noun sense 3 (“a work of detective fiction”) is a semantic loan from Dutch detective and Russian детекти́в (detektív), both from English.
To be or act as or like a detective.
To investigate or find information about (someone or something) as or like a detective.
Where this word comes from
The adjective is from Classical Latin dētēct-, past participial stem of dētegō (“to detect”), + -ive. By surface analysis, detect + -ive. Noun sense 1 is an ellipsis of detective policeman, detective officer, or a similar construction. The later more general noun sense 2 was derived by extension. The verb is also from the noun. Noun sense 3 (“a work of detective fiction”) is a semantic loan from Dutch detective and Russian детекти́в (detektív), both from English.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.