detective

The adjective is from Classical Latin dētēct-, past participial stem of dētegō (“to detect”), +‎ -ive. The noun is an ellipsis of detective policeman, detective officer, or a similar construction.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈtɛktɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛktɪv
• Hyphenation: de‧tec‧tive

detective (plural detectives)

2. (law enforcement) 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.

   Synonym: police detective

   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 7, in Well Tackled!‎^[1]:

     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.

3. A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
   • 1887, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet”, in Beeton’s Christmas Annual, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward, Lock & Co., part I (Being a reprint from the reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., […]), chapter II (The Science of Deduction), pages 12–13:

     […] 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 is. 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 resemblance 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.

• (law enforcement): DT (abbreviation), Det (abbreviation), Det. (abbreviation)
• (person employed to find information): private detective, private investigator
• (person employed to find information): (slang) dick, private dick, gumshoe
• sleuth

detective (not comparable)

1. Employed in detecting.

• deteutive

• IPA^(key): /detekˈtibe/ [d̪e.t̪ekˈt̪i.β̞e]
• Rhymes: -ibe
• Syllabification: de‧tec‧ti‧ve

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.

   • 2024 April 22, Nenyuri, Facebook‎^[2]:

     ¿Nagües por ser un deteutive?

     Do you want to be a detective?

Borrowed from English detective. The sense "work of detective fiction" comes from an ellipsis of detective story.

• IPA^(key): /deː.tɛkˈti.və/, /deːˈtɛk.tɪf/, /dəˈtɛk.tɪf/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧tec‧ti‧ve, de‧tec‧tive
• Rhymes: -ivə

detective m (plural detectives, diminutive detectivetje n or detectiveje n)

1. private detective
2. work of detective fiction, such as a detective novel, film, or series

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “detective”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

detective m (plural detectives)

1. detective

• “detective”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026

Unadapted borrowing from English detective.

• IPA^(key): /deˈtɛk.tiv/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛktiv

detective m or f by sense (invariable)

1. detective

   Synonym: investigatore

• detective in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

detective m (plural detectives)

1. pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1990 in Portugal) of detetive; still used where the agreement hasn’t come into effect and may occur as a sporadic misspelling

• “detective”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “detective”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from English detective.

• IPA^(key): /deteɡˈtibe/ [d̪e.t̪eɣ̞ˈt̪i.β̞e]
• Rhymes: -ibe
• Syllabification: de‧tec‧ti‧ve

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

1. detective

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

• “detective”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025