Detect Meaning
/dɪˈtɛkt/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo discover or find by careful search, examination, or probing.
verbTo work as a detective.
Sentence Examples
The computer can detect 200 types of error.
I can't detect any pattern.
The tests are designed to detect the disease early.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Specialized sensors can ____ even the faintest traces of gas leaks.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The computer can ____ 200 types of error.
Word Origin & History
From Latin detectus, perfect passive participle of detegere (“to uncover or disclose”), from de- + tegere (“to cover”); see tegument, tile, thatch.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Cantharidin, although readily decomposed by chemical agents, is so permanent in the body that it has been detected in the corpse of a cat eighty-four days after death."
— 1885, Alexander Wynter Blyth, Poisons, Their Effects and Detection: A Manual for the Use of Analytical Chemists and Experts, volume I, New York: William Wood and Co., page 430:
"Diesel maintenance schedules are benefiting from work done on the magnificent Hilger & Watts electronic spectrograph for oil analysis, which detects minute quantities of metals in samples of used lubricating oil; [...]."
— 1960 June, “Talking of Trains: New B.R. research laboratory”, in Trains Illustrated, page 329:
"Parker would in all likelihood have done so; he was paid to detect and to do nothing else, and neither his natural gifts nor his education (at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School) prompted him to stray into side-tracks at the beck of an ill-regulated imagination."
— 1926, Dorothy L. Sayers, Clouds of Witness (Lord Peter Wimsey; 2), T. Fisher Unwin, →ISBN, page 105:
"Let me introduce myself: Mike MacAdam, hotel detective. / H-how d-’you do? / Mind if I begin detecting?"
— 1978, Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper, Michael Turner, transl., Tintin in America (The Adventures of Tintin), Egmont, published 2012, →ISBN, page 45:
"In a detective story, a detective detects; an active effort is made to determine who committed a given crime, and detecting the identity of a criminal could not be done until there were detectives."
— 1991, Hillary Waugh, Hillary Waugh's Guide to Mysteries & Mystery Writing Novel, Writer's Digest Books, →ISBN, page 11:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Specialized sensors can ____ even the faintest traces of gas leaks.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The computer can ____ 200 types of error.