detective
Pronunciation: /dɪˈtɛktɪv/
The English word “detective” has 6 meanings listed here.
noun
- A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.
- A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
- A work of detective fiction.
adjective
verb
- To be or act as or like a detective.
- To investigate or find information about (someone or something) as or like a detective.
Etymology
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…
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More English words
- detecting
- detection
- detection comb
- detection dog
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- detective inspector
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- detective work
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.