detection

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

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /dɪˈtɛk.ʃən/

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

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:

     “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.

• (electrical engineering): demodulation

• German: Detektion

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