detective

Etymology
.

Noun

 * 1)  A police officer who looks for evidence as part of solving a crime; an investigator.
 * 2) A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.
 * 3) * 1887 Dec.,, "", Beeton's Christmas Annual, pp. 12–3:
 * 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 means. 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 resemblence 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."
 * 1) * 2013 March 25,, "Long Way Home" in :
 * 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., , , : they come from every class and corner of the country. There’s even 's , a Benedictine monk who solved crimes in Shrewsbury. No surveillance cameras, no fingerprints, not even a telephone, and still he cracked every case that came his way.
 * 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., , , : they come from every class and corner of the country. There’s even 's , a Benedictine monk who solved crimes in Shrewsbury. No surveillance cameras, no fingerprints, not even a telephone, and still he cracked every case that came his way.

Synonyms

 * , Det ,
 * , private dick, gumshoe
 * sleuth
 * sleuth

Derived terms

 * (DC)
 * (DS)
 * (DI)
 * (DCI)
 * (DSupt.)
 * (DCS)
 * (WDC)
 * (DCS)
 * (WDC)
 * (WDC)
 * (WDC)
 * (WDC)
 * (WDC)
 * (WDC)

Translations

 * Albanian:
 * Arabic: مُحَقِّق
 * Armenian:
 * Asturian: detective
 * Azerbaijani: detektiv, xəfiyyəçi, xəfiyyə
 * Belarusian: дэтэкты́ў, шука́ч, сле́дчы
 * Bengali: ,
 * Bulgarian: детекти́в
 * Burmese:
 * Catalan:
 * Cebuano: detektib
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: ,
 * Czech:
 * Danish: detektiv
 * Dutch:, ,
 * Esperanto: policana detektivo
 * Estonian: detektiiv
 * Finnish:
 * French:
 * Friulian: investigadôr
 * Galician:
 * Georgian: დეტექტივი
 * German:, ,
 * Greek: αστυνομικός ερευνητής, ,
 * Hebrew:, בַּלָּשִׁית, , חוֹקֶרֶת
 * Hindi:, , , , , सुराग़ी, ,
 * Hungarian: ,
 * Ido:
 * Indonesian:
 * Irish: bleachtaire
 * Italian:
 * Japanese: ,
 * Kazakh: детектив, тыңшы
 * Khmer: រន្ឋគវេសី,, អ្នកយកការណ៍, គិញ, ចារបុរស
 * Korean: 탐정(探偵),
 * Kurdish:
 * Northern Kurdish: ,
 * Kyrgyz:, сыщик,
 * Lao: ນັກສືບ
 * Latin: inquīsītor
 * Latvian: detektīvs
 * Lithuanian: detektyvas
 * Macedonian: детекти́в
 * Malay: detektif, mata gelap
 * Maori: titeketiwhi, tekitiwhi, kairapuhara
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: politietterforsker, detektiv
 * Nynorsk: politietterforskar, detektiv
 * Pashto: موشک, سراغي
 * Persian:
 * Iranian Persian:
 * Polish: oficer śledczy, ,
 * Portuguese:
 * Romanian:
 * Romansch: investigader
 * Russian:, , , ,
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: истра̀житељ, детѐктӣв
 * Roman: ,
 * Slovak: detektív
 * Slovene:, detektivka
 * Spanish: ,
 * Swedish: kriminalpolis
 * Tagalog: tiktik
 * Tajik: муфаттиш
 * Thai:
 * Turkish: ,
 * Ukrainian: детекти́в,, сліде́ць, си́щик
 * Urdu: جاسُوس, کھوجی, سُراغی, سُراغ رَساں
 * Uzbek: ,
 * Vietnamese: (探子)
 * Welsh:
 * West Frisian: resjersjeur
 * Yiddish: דעטעקטיוו


 * Armenian:
 * Bulgarian: разузнава́ч
 * Catalan:
 * Cebuano: detektib
 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 私人偵探, 私家偵探
 * Czech:
 * Danish: detektiv, privatdetektiv
 * Dutch: ,
 * Esperanto: detektivo, detektivino
 * Estonian: detektiiv
 * Finnish:
 * French:, ,
 * Galician:
 * German:, , Privatdetektiv, Privatdetektivin, Privatermittler, Privatermittlerin, , Schnüfflerin  ,
 * Greek:, ιδιωτικός ερευνητής, , , ιδιωτική ερευνήτρια
 * Hebrew:, בַּלָּשִׁית
 * Hungarian: ,
 * Ido:
 * Indonesian:
 * Irish: bleachtaire, lorgaire
 * Italian:
 * Japanese:, 私立探偵
 * Korean: 탐정(探偵), 사립탐정(私立探偵)
 * Latin: inquīsītor
 * Macedonian: истра́жител, и́следник
 * Malay: penyiasat
 * Maltese: spjun, spjuna
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese:
 * Romansch: detectiv
 * Russian: ,
 * Spanish: ,
 * Swedish:
 * Thai:
 * Vietnamese: thám tử tư (探子私)
 * Welsh:
 * Yiddish: דעטעקטיוו

Adjective

 * 1) Employed in detecting.

Etymology
.

Usage notes

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