Other forms: detectors
A detector is a device that senses something is present. A smoke detector, a metal detector, a lie detector.
The thing detected goes in front: smoke detector, carbon monoxide detector, motion detector. Smoke detectors are the one every home is told to have and about a third do not test. A metal detector is used by hobbyists and at security checks. A lie detector, or polygraph, measures physiological signs and is not accepted as evidence in British courts because it does not reliably detect lies. Note detect and detection.
1noundetectorA device that senses something is present.
“The smoke detector went off at about four in the morning.”
detector is a sensing device.
Latin detector comes from detegere, to uncover — de- plus tegere, to cover, the same root as protect and toga. A detector uncovers what is hidden rather than finding what is lost.
Latin
dētēctor
English, today
detector
Borrowed from Latin dētēctor. Equals detect + -or.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA