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.
See Examples For:
Back at Auburn, the team spent almost a year refining its equipment before it could reliably detect the weak optical signals from the tiny electrical regions.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2026
That’s especially true for facilities that are in closer proximity to Iran, like NSA Bahrain, and therefore with less time to detect and intercept projectiles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2026
"What we really care about is defining early markers that can detect earlier signs of cognitive decline and potentially help us deliver timely interventions to people."
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2026
The study, published November 4 in Science Advances, points to a potentially powerful new way to detect early warning signs of cognitive decline.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2026
For several days the pack closed in tight again, and they could no longer detect the movement of the ocean.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
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The observatory detects only a few dozen of the most energetic examples each year.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 2, 2026
A hotspot is a location where a satellite detects an unusually high temperature, indicating a potential fire or other strong heat source.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
We need to replace the nation’s BioWatch system—the federal air-monitoring system that detects biological agent releases—with today’s technology.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
Belgian physicist Prof Francis Halzen has won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering work on an observatory that detects particles from space, shedding light on the distant universe.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
My system detects we are getting closer and closer.
From "A Rover's Story" by Jasmine Warga
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At the same time, the satellite detected a decline in the number of energetic electrons that normally circulate through this region of space.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2026
If any problems are detected there are various points during the flight when the rocket stage can be brought down in the ocean.
From BBC ● Nov. 13, 2026
Many prostate cancers in the U.S. are detected with a blood test that measures prostate-specific antigen, or PSA.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 13, 2026
Researchers working with the LHCb experiment have detected evidence of a process expected to occur only once in approximately 10 billion beauty particle decays.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 10, 2026
As she studied that part of the horizon, she detected other lights winking as they were hidden or eclipsed by trees.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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The telescope can examine enormous portions of the sky while collecting detailed images and detecting faint infrared light from extremely distant objects.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2026
"Our teams mobilised immediately after detecting the attack and, as a precautionary measure, decided to temporarily suspend certain transactions in order to secure operations and prevent any further fraudulent activity," Arkea said.
From Barron's ● Nov. 4, 2026
The new STRIDE-RCT trial, external is about detecting bowel, small bowel, stomach, oesophageal, pancreatic, liver, bile duct and gallbladder, ovarian, endometrial, kidney, bladder and prostate cancer.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
For example, militaries detecting projectiles in their airspace that were en route to a target country didn’t warn their counterparts, leaving them with less time to deal with incoming attacks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Instead of allowing each officer to rely on his or her own limited experience and biases in detecting suspicious behavior, a drug-courier profile affords every officer the advantage of the agency’s collective experience and expertise.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
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Vocabulary lists containing detect
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