Seek

How to spell seek

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce seek

What does seek mean?

1. verbTo try to find, obtain, or achieve something through searching or effort.

Seek in a sentence

• Applicants should seek professional advice before signing the contract.

• Many graduates seek work in the city where they studied.

Where does seek come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a thoroughly native English word, descending from the Old English verb sēcan, meaning 'to look for', 'to visit', or 'to pursue'. That in turn grew from a Proto-Germanic root sōkijaną, the same source that gave Dutch zoeken and German suchen, all carrying the idea of searching out. The ancient root also links, more distantly, to the Latin sagire, 'to perceive keenly', which is where the word 'sagacious' comes from. The modern spelling smooths over a tangled history: the old past tense 'sought' still preserves a guttural sound that the present 'seek' lost, which is why the two forms look so different today. The plain double-e spelling, settled by the late medieval period, is exactly what makes it easy, since the long vowel is written just as it sounds.

How the word is built

• seek (from Old English sēcan: to look for, pursue)

Words that sound like seek

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• sikh: A follower of Sikhism, the religion founded by Guru Nanak in the Punjab.