verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
-
to search for (something on the internet) using a search engine
-
to check (the credentials of someone) by searching for websites containing his or her name
Etymology
Origin of Google
First recorded in 1998; after mathematical term googol
Explanation
To google is to use an online search engine to find some piece of information. You might google your favorite author to find out what other books she's written. Searching the Internet for answers to questions, details about people, map directions, and other information is a common activity for most of us, and since the 1990s, most of us have come to use the verb google to describe it. The verb comes from the Google search engine, first active in 1997, although until about 2000 it was mostly used in the phrase "Do a google on."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Alphabet’s Google will invest $15 billion in Malaysia over 2027 and 2028 to expand its digital infrastructure, develop local talent and support clean-energy and water initiatives.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026
Consider how you search for information online: You may formerly have been likely to click a link to get more information after running a Google search.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026
Ippolito said she immediately started a Google search of the names and found from an online obituary that the owner of the wedding dress was Heidi Webber McClellan of Oroville, Calif.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
In 2020, the heads of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google were called to answer for their market dominance.
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026
Steve’s address is only a Google search away.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
Anyone who has Googled a disturbing symptom and plunged down a rabbit hole of anxiety might fancifully imagine that hypochondria is an internet-spawned phenomenon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026
Is there something you Googled in the process of making the show where you were like, “Did this really happen?”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
I Googled “Philadelphia public radio” and found WXPN, now my gold standard.
From Slate ● Apr. 12, 2026
Wordle even helped to end a 17-hour hostage ordeal and became the most Googled word of 2022.
From BBC ● Mar. 30, 2026
Or, maybe it’s something I should’ve Googled to find out the answer myself—but it’s too late to backtrack now.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
“I started Googling it–that’s when I discovered the bad news,” he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
"You're Googling stuff that you think you already know and then you kind of tick the box after that saying, oh, I've already done my work for today, my therapy work with ChatGPT," he says.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
Barrios Gracián’s training consisted of a free entrepreneur course through the city of Anaheim, a video by the American Booksellers Assn., talking to other bookstore owners and Googling “how to open a bookstore.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2025
After Googling “Eric” and “Dominion,” Oltmann concluded that the speaker was Eric Coomer.
From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2025
Even now, even while actively Googling, she keeps waving her phone emphatically.
From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
