Abstract: Synthetic musk was widely used in personal care products and daily necessities, and the pollution level in the environment was increasing with years. It was of great significance to accurately determine synthetic musk in the environment. The pretreatment methods (including solid phase extraction, solid phase micro-extraction, liquid-liquid extraction, liquid-liquid micro-extraction, Soxhlet extraction, ultrasound-assisted extraction, accelerated solvent extraction and QuEChERS) and instrumental analysis methods (including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and new fluorescence spectrophotometry) of synthetic musk in water body were reviewed, and the development trend of relevant research field was prospected (52 ref. cited).