detect
Usage
What are other ways to say detect?
To detect implies becoming aware of something that had been obscure, secret, or concealed: to detect a flaw in reasoning. To ascertain is to verify facts by inquiry or analysis: to ascertain the truth about an event. To learn is to add to one's knowledge or information: to learn a language. The verb discover is used with objective clauses as a synonym of learn in order to suggest that the new information acquired is surprising to the learner: I discovered that she had been married before.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"When we detect individual cosmic-ray particles such as the Amaterasu particle here on Earth, we can often use their energies, arrival directions and expected magnetic deflections to infer their possible cosmic sources."
From Science Daily • Jun. 9, 2026
This species of Ebola, the Bundibugyo virus, is harder to detect, and there is no vaccine for it.
From Slate • Jun. 9, 2026
Combining all Asian Americans into one category can make those differences impossible to detect.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 6, 2026
In fact for much of the show’s duration evidence of serious mental instability is hard to detect among the young women Susanna finds herself living with.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
Uniformed men take my grandparents' phones and even their keys, and we walk through something that Tanvi Ma'am says is an instrument made to detect metal.
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
Vocabulary lists containing detect
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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List 9
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