See also: détection

English

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Etymology

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    Learned borrowing from Latin dētēctiōnem. By surface analysis, detect +‎ -ion.

    Pronunciation

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    Noun

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    detection (countable and uncountable, plural detections)

    1. The act or process of detecting, uncovering, or finding out, the discovery of something new, hidden, or disguised.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
        In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
      • 1931, Francis Beeding, “10/6”, in Death Walks in Eastrepps[1]:
        “Why should Eldridge commit murder? [] There was only one possible motive—namely, he wished to avoid detection as James Selby of Anaconda Ltd. []
    2. (obsolete) Synonym of accusation, the exposure of concealed information about a crime or heresy.
    3. (electrical engineering) The act or process of finding or detecting an electrical signal in a carrier wave.

    Synonyms

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    Derived terms

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    Descendants

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    • German: Detektion

    Translations

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    References

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