Searching

How to spell searching

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce searching

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does searching mean?

1. verbIn the act of looking carefully and thoroughly for something or someone.
2. adjectiveExamining deeply or probingly, as of a look, question, or analysis.

Searching in a sentence

• verb

  She spent the whole morning searching for the missing receipt.

• adjective

  The interviewer fixed him with a searching stare before asking about the gap in his work history.

• verb

  The rescue team is still searching the hillside for the lost hiker.

• adjective

  The report offered a searching analysis of the company's finances.

Where does searching come from?

Language of origin: French

This word grows from the verb 'search', which English took from the Old French cerchier, meaning 'to go round, to look through'. That French verb came from the Late Latin circare, 'to go around in a circle', which was itself built on circus, the Latin word for a ring or circle (the same root behind 'circle' and 'circus'). The original image was of someone moving around a place to examine every part of it, an idea still alive when we 'search' a room thoroughly. English adopted the verb in the 1300s, and the present participle 'searching' soon doubled as an adjective for a look or question that probes deeply. The spelling trap sits at the front: the sound is plain, but the letters 'sea' (as in the verb search) must be remembered, not the phonetic 'ser'.

How the word is built

• search (to look for, from Old French cerchier)
• -ing (present participle / adjective suffix)