as in detective
a person not on the police force who investigates criminal or illicit activity or searches for missing persons
the popular TV sleuth lives a much more action-packed life than do his real-world counterparts
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of sleuth
Hines is left in the dust with a surprised look on her face, leading many keyboard sleuths believing the she got snubbed.
—
Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 14 Apr. 2025
On this week’s podcast, Mark Seal explains how amateur sleuths busted a multi-national cyber-scam
Read On
Literary Matters
Private Predicaments and Natural Disasters Meghan Daum wrote a book called The Catastrophe Hour.
—Air Mail, 12 Apr. 2025
Today, the other three women have been reclaimed, these sleuths reason.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 21 May 2025
Internet sleuths had guessed that the secret carpet color would be blue, posting their theories on X ahead of tonight's event.
—Angela Yang, NBC news, 6 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for sleuth
Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald, 14 Apr. 2025
On this week’s podcast, Mark Seal explains how amateur sleuths busted a multi-national cyber-scam
Read On
Literary Matters
Private Predicaments and Natural Disasters Meghan Daum wrote a book called The Catastrophe Hour.
—Air Mail, 12 Apr. 2025
Today, the other three women have been reclaimed, these sleuths reason.
—Jackson McHenry, Vulture, 21 May 2025
Internet sleuths had guessed that the secret carpet color would be blue, posting their theories on X ahead of tonight's event.
—Angela Yang, NBC news, 6 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for sleuth
Recent Examples of Synonyms for sleuth
Noun
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Last week, prosecutors called their final witness, the Chicago police detective who was the lead investigator in the case.—
Madeline Buckley,
Chicago Tribune,
2 June 2025
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While genre fiction steadily advances onto bestseller lists, realism soldiers on, amid cyborgs and dragons and boozy detectives.—
Hamilton Cain,
Los Angeles Times,
2 June 2025
Noun
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But the claim started to unravel as investigators talked to Morales Reyes, who doesn’t speak English fluently, and obtained a handwriting sample from him that was different from the handwriting in the letters, according to court documents.—
Chicago Tribune,
Chicago Tribune,
5 June 2025
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Sacramento police investigators are still working to determine how the 36-year-old mother of four became fatally pinned between her sport utility vehicle and another car in a shopping center’s parking lot on Rush River Drive in Sacramento’s Pocket neighborhood Tuesday evening.—
Darrell Smith,
Sacbee.com,
5 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Sleuth.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sleuth. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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