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Sleuth vs Stealth - What's the difference?

sleuth | stealth |

As nouns the difference between sleuth and stealth

is that sleuth is (obsolete) an animal’s trail or track or sleuth can be (obsolete|uncountable) slowness; laziness, sloth while stealth is (uncountable) the attribute or characteristic of acting in secrecy, or in such a way that the actions are unnoticed or difficult to detect by others.

As a verb sleuth

is (transitive) to act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime.

sleuth

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (Norwegian slo).

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) An animal’s trail or track.
  • (archaic) A sleuth-hound; a bloodhound.
  • A detective.
  • * 1908 , (Frank L. Baum), Aunt Jane’s Nieces at Millville
    • Do ye want me to become a sleuth , or engage detectives to track the objects of your erroneous philanthropy?
    Synonyms
    * (detective) detective

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (transitive) To act as a detective; to try to discover who committed a crime.
  • * 1922 , , The Secret Adversary
    • We must discover where he lives, what he does — sleuth him, in fact!
    Synonyms
    * shadow

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , corresponding to (slow) + (-th).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete, uncountable) Slowness; laziness, sloth.
  • (rare) A collective term for a group of bears.
  • * 1961 , , A Passport Secretly Green , p.89
    • As quietly as if I were practicing to join a sleuth of bears , I crept out the door and went on home, eventually winding up in the garage…
  • * 1995 , , The Girl Sleuth , p.13
    • If these dainty adventurers weren’t being chased by a sleuth of bears or bogeys, they were being captured by Gypsies or thieves.
  • * 2007 , , The Lightkeepers’ Menagerie: Stories of Animals at Lighthouses , p.200
    • From the darkness came the howls of routs of wolves and bands of coyotes, the rumbling growls of a sleuth of bears or the bugles of a gang of elk.
    Synonyms
    * (sloth) idleness, inertia, laziness, lethargy, sloth, slothfulness * (collective term for a group of bears) sloth

    See also

    * sloth *

    Anagrams

    * English collective nouns

    stealth

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The attribute or characteristic of acting in secrecy, or in such a way that the actions are unnoticed or difficult to detect by others.
  • (archaic, countable) An act of secrecy, especially one involving thievery.
  • * 1877 , George Hill, An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster at the Commencement of the Seventeenth Century , M'Caw, Stevenson & Orr, page 352:
    • [The King] thinks it fit[...] that restitution according to this order be made to the petitioners for stealths committed upon them last winter (273).

    Related terms

    * steal

    Derived terms

    * stealth bomber * stealth fighter * stealthy