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.
Ditto advances in AI, which have shown the potential to detect pancreatic cancer on CT scans at earlier stages and with greater sensitivity than can radiologists.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 19, 2026
The ones that remain tend to orbit much farther away, making them difficult to detect with current transit methods used by Kepler and TESS.
From Science Daily • Apr. 19, 2026
How to detect AI-composed text—and whether humans or software can tell the difference—is a subject of academic debate.
From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026
The companies announced a program that will use Waymo’s self-driving cars to better detect potholes in the city.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2026
Most of Alcante’s family has or had extrapulmonary TB, which is much harder to detect until it begins to spread, and then it can be fatal.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Vocabulary lists containing detect
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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List 9
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