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# detective

«detective» in Mova's school dictionary: **a police officer or private worker whose job is to find…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a detective, detectives); adjective (detective story, detective work)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A detective is a police officer or private worker whose job is to find out who did a crime and how. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#m1)

2) Anyone who looks closely at clues to solve a puzzle or mystery. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#m2)

3) As an adjective: about solving crimes, as in «detective story» or «detective work». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Common in stories, TV shows and puzzle games. Phrases: «private detective», «detective story», «play detective», «do some detective work». In school, «be a maths detective» means look for clues in a problem to find the answer.

### examples

- The detective found a muddy footprint by the window. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x1)
- Sherlock Holmes is a famous detective in stories. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x2)
- My sister loves reading detective books. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x3)
- Let's be maths detectives and find the missing number. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x4)
- A private detective was hired to find the lost dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x5)
- It took some detective work to find where my sock went. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x6)
- The detective asked everyone where they had been. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/#x7)

### note

Countable: a detective, two detectives. Informal shortenings: «detective» is sometimes «D.I.» (UK, detective inspector) or «a PI» (private investigator, US). Related: detect (verb), detection. A detective is not always a police officer — some are private.

### In the corpora

- [Koalas have fingerprints so like ours that they could confuse a detective.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/354-skin-fingerprints-scabs-scars-bruises-and-blisters/8/)
- [A week later only one is properly rusty, and a detective knows which before looking.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/37-olympiad-everyday-chemistry-detectives/3/)
- [A good reader is a detective: find the clues, then say what they show.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/18-inference-reading-between-the-lines/2/)
- [A detective does not need a magnifying glass, only careful eyes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/18-inference-reading-between-the-lines/3/)
- [Good detectives do it the other way round.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/162-who-stole-the-remote-jumping-to-conclusions/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «detective» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/detective/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.