sleuth

verb

sleuthed; sleuthing; sleuths

intransitive verb

: to act as a detective : search for information

transitive verb

: to search for and discover

Did you know?

"They were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" Those canine tracks in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles set the great Sherlock Holmes sleuthing on the trail of a murderer. It was a case of art imitating etymology. When Middle English speakers first borrowed sleuth from the Old Norse word slōth, the term referred to the track of an animal or person. In Scotland, sleuth hund referred to a kind of bloodhound used to hunt game or track down fugitives from justice. In 19th-century U.S. English, sleuthhound, soon shortened to sleuth, began to be used for a detective. From there, sleuth slipped into verb use to apply to what a sleuth does.

Examples of sleuth in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The hours of sleuthing the world’s largest online retailer for its early Prime Day deals under $100 has finally paid off, and the sale hasn’t even kicked off yet. —Julia Harrison, Architectural Digest, 2 June 2026

As of yesterday, the New York Post’s Page Six had sleuthed out unconfirmed rumors that director Barry Avrich was working on a documentary about the art world giant. —Brian Boucher, ARTnews.com, 15 May 2026

Some sleuthing commenters noted Kelce connecting his brother and Bulloch with numerology, a penchant of Travis's fiancée Taylor Swift. —Chiara Kim, PEOPLE, 13 May 2026

Fred and Palmer can’t get their heads around what the rest of the Marsies are so worked up about, and Boyd has far bigger fish to fry because her freelance sleuthing in the space-suit checkout logs has revealed something terrible. —Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 24 Apr. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1889, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for sleuth

• luth
• muth
• tooth
• youth
• bluetooth
• forsooth
• sawtooth
• tolbooth
• uncouth
• untruth
• vermouth

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Kids Definition

sleuth

1 of 2 noun

ˈslüth 

: detective entry 2

sleuth

2 of 2 verb

: to act as a detective

Etymology

a shortened form of sleuthhound "a dog that follows a track or trail by scent," from Middle English sleuth "a track or trail"; of Norse origin

Word Origin

In Middle English the word sleuth meant "the track or trail left by an animal or person." After the 15th century sleuth was seldom used except in such words as sleuth-dog and sleuthhound. These were terms for a dog trained to follow a track or trail. The sleuthhound became well known for its eager and thorough pursuit of an object. Later the word sleuthhound came to be used for a "detective." The modern word sleuth first came into use as a shortened form of sleuthhound.