Definitions for detective
dɪˈtɛk tɪvde·tec·tive

Princeton's WordNet(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. detective, investigator, tec, police detective(noun)

   a police officer who investigates crimes

2. detective(noun)

   an investigator engaged or employed in obtaining information not easily available to the public

Wiktionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. detective(Noun)

   a police officer who looks for evidence as part of solving a crime; an investigator.

2. detective(Noun)

   a person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Detective(adj)

   fitted for, or skilled in, detecting; employed in detecting crime or criminals; as, a detective officer

2. Detective(noun)

   one who business it is so detect criminals or discover matters of secrecy

Freebase(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. Detective

   A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes". Informally, and primarily in fiction, a detective is any licensed or unlicensed person who solves crimes, including historical crimes, or looks into records.

Editors Contribution(2.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. detective

   An employee, job title and rank within a governmental police organizational structure with specific responsibility.

   Most police structures have the job title and rank of detective within their organizational structure.

   Submitted by MC Harmonious on January 16, 2016  

British National Corpus

1. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'detective' in Written Corpus Frequency: #4837

2. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'detective' in Nouns Frequency: #1483

How to pronounce detective?

1. 

   Alex

   US English

   

   Daniel

   British

   

   Karen

   Australian

   

   Veena

   Indian

How to say detective in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of detective in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of detective in Pythagorean Numerology is: 3

Examples of detective in a Sentence

1. Arthur C. Clarke:

   Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.

2. Bruce Aylward:

   You always hear about disease detective work and that is what Ebola is about now.

3. Peter Salama:

   The detective work of epidemiology will make or break the response to this outbreak.

4. Julia Simmons:

   We all told him [the detective] we believe that Steve pushed her, this is not an accident.

5. Diana Dragomir:

   There was quite some detective work involved, and the right people were there at the right time.

Images & Illustrations of detective

Popularity rank by frequency of use