as in investigator
a person not on the police force who investigates criminal or illicit activity or searches for missing persons
the code used by the serial killer in his letters to the police was actually cracked by an amateur detective
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of detective
Along comes Gwyneth Keyworth as the world’s sweetest (actual) police detective Janie Mallowan, Chapel’s biggest fan who knocks on his door in the middle of an investigation.
—
Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2025
Related Stories The new spin on the Arthur Conan Doyle detective premiered on the CW Network on April 16 and, in its most recent week, achieved its highest ratings of the season, growing almost 20% since its premiere.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 11 June 2025
Last week, prosecutors called their final witness, the Chicago police detective who was the lead investigator in the case.
—Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune, 2 June 2025
While genre fiction steadily advances onto bestseller lists, realism soldiers on, amid cyborgs and dragons and boozy detectives.
—Hamilton Cain, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for detective
Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 13 June 2025
Related Stories The new spin on the Arthur Conan Doyle detective premiered on the CW Network on April 16 and, in its most recent week, achieved its highest ratings of the season, growing almost 20% since its premiere.
—Leo Barraclough, Variety, 11 June 2025
Last week, prosecutors called their final witness, the Chicago police detective who was the lead investigator in the case.
—Madeline Buckley, Chicago Tribune, 2 June 2025
While genre fiction steadily advances onto bestseller lists, realism soldiers on, amid cyborgs and dragons and boozy detectives.
—Hamilton Cain, Los Angeles Times, 2 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for detective
Recent Examples of Synonyms for detective
Noun
-
But the claim started to unravel as investigators talked to Morales Reyes, who doesn’t speak English fluently, and obtained a handwriting sample from him that was different from the handwriting in the letters, according to court documents.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
5 June 2025
-
Sacramento police investigators are still working to determine how the 36-year-old mother of four became fatally pinned between her sport utility vehicle and another car in a shopping center’s parking lot on Rush River Drive in Sacramento’s Pocket neighborhood Tuesday evening.—
Darrell Smith,
Sacbee.com,
5 June 2025
Noun
-
The Republican operative Karl Rove has written an admiring book on McKinley.—
Daniel Immerwahr,
New Yorker,
16 June 2025
-
Le Carré’s description of CIA-style abductions, where massed operatives overwhelm their target, bind his hands, and dress him in black goggles and headphones engineered to block all sight and sound of the outside world, derives from contemporary journalistic accounts.—
Rav Grewal-Kök
June 16,
Literary Hub,
16 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Detective.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/detective. Accessed 19 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share