Search meaning

What does “search” mean? Definitions, examples, synonyms and opposites.

“search” is a noun and verb with 9 meanings. Its most common meaning is: the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone.

search

noun

  1. the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone

    Synonymshunthunting
  2. an investigation seeking answers

    “a thorough search of the ledgers revealed nothing”

    “the outcome justified the search”

  3. an operation that determines whether one or more of a set of items has a specified property

    “they wrote a program to do a table lookup”

    Synonymslookup
  4. the examination of alternative hypotheses

    “his search for a move that would avoid checkmate was unsuccessful”

  5. boarding and inspecting a ship on the high seas

    “right of search”

verb

  1. try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of

    “The police are searching for clues”

    “They are searching for the missing man in the entire county”

    Synonymsseeklook for
  2. search or seek

    “We looked all day and finally found the child in the forest”

    “Look elsewhere for the perfect gift!”

    Synonymslook
  3. inquire into

    “the students had to research the history of the Second World War for their history project”

    “He searched for information on his relatives on the web”

  4. subject to a search

    “The police searched the suspect”

    “We searched the whole house for the missing keys”

Source: WordNet 3.1, Princeton University