Search

How to spell search

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce search

What does search mean?

1. verbTo look carefully and thoroughly in order to find someone or something.
2. nounAn act of looking carefully to find someone or something.

Search in a sentence

• verb

  Officers had to search every room in the building.

• noun

  The search for the missing dog lasted three days.

• verb

  She paused to search her bag for the missing keys.

• noun

  A quick search of the database turned up no matching records.

Where does search come from?

Language of origin: French

This word came into English in the 1300s from the Old French verb cerchier (also spelled sercher), meaning 'to go about, to seek'. That French verb descended from the Late Latin circare, which literally meant 'to go round' or 'to wander about', built on the Latin circus, the noun for a ring or circle. The underlying image is therefore of moving in circles while looking for something, which is a fitting picture of an actual search. The same circular root sits behind familiar relatives such as 'circle', 'circuit' and 'circa'. The slightly odd English spelling, with 'ear' standing in for the vowel sound, comes from the way the medieval French and English pronunciations were rendered, and it is what makes 'search' look less regular than it sounds.

How the word is built

• search (single root, from Old French cerchier/cerchen, ultimately from Latin circare 'to go round')