Suspect
//səˈspɛkt// adj, noun, verb
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person who is suspected of something, in particular of committing a crime.
"1942, Casablanca, written by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch Round up the usual suspects."
- 2 a person or institution against whom an action is brought in a court of law; the person being sued or accused wordnet
- 3 someone who is under suspicion wordnet
Verb
- 1 To imagine or suppose (something) to be true, or to exist, without proof. transitive
"to suspect the presence of disease"
- 2 regard as untrustworthy; regard with suspicion; have no faith or confidence in wordnet
- 3 To distrust or have doubts about (something or someone). transitive
"to suspect the truth of a story"
- 4 imagine to be the case or true or probable wordnet
- 5 To believe (someone) to be guilty. transitive
"I suspect him of being the thief."
Show 3 more definitions
- 6 hold in suspicion; believe to be guilty wordnet
- 7 To have suspicion. intransitive
- 8 To look up to; to respect. obsolete, transitive
Adjective
- 1 Viewed with suspicion; suspected.
"What I can do or offer is suspect."
- 2 Viewing with suspicion; suspecting. nonstandard
"Now I’m suspect of other advice that I read in your pages."
Adjective
- 1 not as expected wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Prosecutors in court have to substantiate their claims in order to prove a suspect is guilty."
Etymology
From Old French suspect, from Latin suspectus, perfect passive participle of suspiciō (“mistrust, suspect”), from sub (“under”), + speciō (“watch, look at”).
Related phrases
More for "suspect"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.