detection

See also: détection

English

Etymology

From Latin dētēctiō, from dētegere (“to detect”), from dē- (“un-”) + tegere (“to cover, to hide”). Equivalent to detect +‎ -ion.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈtɛk.ʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /dɪˈtek.ʃən/
• Rhymes: -ɛkʃən

Noun

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

• (electrical engineering): demodulation

Derived terms

• Canny edge detection
• collision detection
• detection comb
• detection dog
• lie detection
• non-detection
• nuclear hydrogen detection meter

 

Descendants

• German: Detektion

Translations

act of detecting or sensing something

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: откриване (bg) (otkrivane), разкриване (bg) (razkrivane)
• Catalan: detecció f
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: havaitseminen (fi), löytäminen (fi)
• French: détection (fr) f
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Detektion
• Greek: ανίχνευση (el) f (aníchnefsi)
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Indonesian: deteksi (id)
• Irish: lorgaireacht f, brathadóireacht f
• Italian: identificazione (it) f, investigazione (it) f, rilevazione (it) f, rilevamento (it) m
• Korean: 탐지 (tamji), 수색 (ko) (susaek)
• Latin: detectio
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Occitan: deteccion f
• Persian: شناسایی (fa) (šenâsâyi)
• Polish: wykrycie (pl) n, wykrywanie (pl) n, detekcja (pl) f
• Portuguese: detecção (pt) f (Brazil), deteção f (Portugal)
• Romanian: detecție (ro)
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: detección f
• Swedish: fynd (sv)

the finding out of a constituent, a signal, an agent or the like

• French: détection (fr)
• Indonesian: deteksi (id)
• Italian: rilevamento (it), detezione
• Portuguese: detecção (pt) f (Brazil), deteção f (Portugal)
• Spanish: detección

References

• “detection, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2022.