DETECT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does detect mean? 

• DETECT (verb)
  The verb DETECT has 1 sense:

1. discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of

  Familiarity information: DETECT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DETECT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they detect    ... he / she / it detects   
Past simple: detected   
Past participle: detected   
-ing form: detecting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

detect; discover; find; notice; observe

Context example:

We found traces of lead in the paint

Hypernyms (to "detect" is one way to...):

sight; spy (catch sight of; to perceive with the eyes)

Verb group:

discover; find (make a discovery, make a new finding)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "detect"):

catch out; find out (trap; especially in an error or in a reprehensible act)

sense (detect some circumstance or entity automatically)

instantiate (find an instance of (a word or particular usage of a word))

trace (discover traces of)

see (observe as if with an eye)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

detecting (a police investigation to determine the perpetrator)

detection (the act of detecting something; catching sight of something)

detector (any device that receives a signal or stimulus (as heat or pressure or light or motion etc.) and responds to it in a distinctive manner)

detector (electronic equipment that detects the presence of radio signals or radioactivity)

 Context examples 

Detecting the smallest dark matter formations by looking for embedded stars can be difficult or impossible because they contain very few stars.

(Cosmic Magnifying Glasses Find Dark Matter in Small Clumps, NASA)

This isn't the first time a spacecraft has detected auroras on Mars.

(Auroras on Mars, NASA)

Serendipitously, it was sensitive enough to also detect the toxin in urine, said ARS microbiologist Candace Bever, who worked on the development.

(New Test Identifies Poisonous Mushrooms, Agricultural Research Service)

A method used to detect organisms that have resistance to a single concentration of antibiotics in an agar matrix.

(Antibiotic Agar Screening Method, NCI Thesaurus)

A characteristic of a medicinal product, specifying that its most predominant agreeable savor detected by the unified sensation of taste and olfactory receptors resembles apple.

(Apple Flavor, NCI Thesaurus)

An arrhythmia that is detected on an electrocardiograph.

(Arrhythmia by ECG Finding, NCI Thesaurus)

The Resource implements methods that allow maximal retention of animals when an infectious agent is detected in a barrier room.

(Barrier Animal Facility Shared Resource, NCI Thesaurus)

A fluorescence in situ hybridization kit that detects the rearrangements between the ALK gene which is located at 2p23 and all known translocation partner loci in lymphomas and carcinomas.

(ALK Break Apart FISH Probe Kit, NCI Thesaurus)

The altered genes that cause each type can be detected with a blood test.

(MEN syndrome, NCI Dictionary)

The compact fluorescent imaging device can detect single nanoparticles and viruses.

(Smartphone microscope detects nanoparticles and viruses, NIH)