détective
French, noun/de.tɛk.tiv/
détective is spelled D-É-T-E-C-T-I-V-E (9 letters) and appears 6.0 times per million words in written French, the 9,803rd most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Détective is a French feminine noun meaning “detective (police officer who looks for evidence)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Agent de police employé à un service de recherches, dans les pays de langue anglaise”.
What does détective mean in English?
noun
- 1
femininemasculinedetective (police officer who looks for evidence)
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Agent de police employé à un service de recherches, dans les pays de langue anglaise. 2. Personne qui effectue des recherches et enquêtes de type policier à titre privé.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of détective
- détectives plural
- détectif
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce détective?
- /de.tɛk.tiv/
- \de.tɛk.tiv\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to détective
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is détective in French?
détective appears 6.0 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).