search

noun
/sɜːt͡ʃ/UK/sɝt͡ʃ/US/sɑː(ɹ)t͡ʃ/

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek κίρκος (kírkos)bor. Late Latin circus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Late Latin -ō Late Latin circō Anglo-Norman sercherbor. Middle English serchen English search Inherited from Middle English serchen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sercher, Old French cerchier, from Late Latin circō, ,circāre (“to circle; go around; search for”), from circus. Unrelated to German suchen, which is cognate with English seek.

  1. derived from circō,
  2. derived from cerchier
  3. derived from sercher
  4. inherited from serchen

Definitions

  1. An attempt to find something.

    • With only five minutes until we were meant to leave, the search for the keys started in earnest.
    • At least eight people died, and officials expressed deep concerns that the toll would rise as more searches of homes were carried out.
  2. The act of searching in general.

    • Search is a hard problem for computers to solve efficiently.
  3. To look in (a place) for something.

    • I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.
  4. + 6 more definitions
    1. To look thoroughly.

      • The police are searching for evidence in his flat.
      • It sufficeth that they have once with care and fairness sifted the matter as far as they could, and searched into all the particulars.
    2. To look for, seek.

      • To search the God of loue, her Nymphes she sent / Throughout the wandring forrest euery where[…].
      • For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
      • Anough is left besides to search and know.
    3. To put a phrase into a search engine, especially one besides Google.

      • I searched "Paris Hilton" and found lots of unflattering stories.
    4. To probe or examine (a wound).

      • Now to the bottome dost thou search my wound.
      • Thus when they all had sorowed their fill, / They softly gan to search his griesly wownd[…].
    5. To examine

      To examine; to try; to put to the test.

    6. A surname.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at search. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01search02find03experiment04examine05qualifications06qualification07awarded08award09research

A definitional loop anchored at search. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at search

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA