Detection and characterization of fluoride is an important part of understanding the benefits as well as the potential toxicity of fluoride in biotic and abiotic natural sources. Fluoride can have determinantal effect on human health at high concentrations (>1.5 mg L -1 ), thus, they must be detected and quantitated. For this analytical methods play an important role. This review underlines the role of analytical methods in detection and quantitation of fluoride. The review highlights a variety of analytical methods, for instance, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and molecular absorption spectrometry (MAS), and electrochemical methods that have been applied in the determination of fluoride. The principles of these techniques in conjunction with their pros and cons, and their applications regarding the determination and detection of fluoride arediscussed. The commonly used fluoride sensing methods, including the fluorescence and colorimetric methods have also been discussed. We hope this review will promote the next generation approaches and application of innovatve analytical methods for the fluoride detection and quantification.