search engine

American  

[surch en-juhn] / ˈsɜrtʃ ˌɛn dʒən /

noun

Digital Technology.

search engines plural

1. a computer program that searches documents, especially on the World Wide Web, for a specified word or words and provides a list of documents in which they are found.

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search engine British  

noun

1. computing a service provided on the internet enabling users to search for items of interest

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search engine Cultural  

1. Web sites or software that search the Internet for documents that contain a key word, phrase, or subject that is specified by the user to the search engine. Each engine has its own method of searching for information.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• search engines
  plural

Etymology

Origin of search engine

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

“AI will eliminate the Search Engine Result Page, which is where they make most of their money.”

From Washington Times • Feb. 1, 2023

Epstein, a former Psychology Today editor in chief who runs a nonprofit institute in California, calls the phenomenon he has explored the Search Engine Manipulation Effect.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 22, 2019

Democracy Google Is Still Working on China Search Engine, Employees Claim Ryan Gallagher reports that a group of Googlers has found evidence that the company continues to work on a controversial plan to re-enter China.

From The Verge • Mar. 5, 2019

Publishers believe that in this era of Search Engine Optimization, books must have subtitles, whether superfluous or not, and the more wordy the better.

From Washington Post • Nov. 15, 2018

Broadly speaking, however, I tend to agree with Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan when he says that Google’s Android mobile platform is of significantly greater concern than Google’s search engine.

From Slate • Mar. 25, 2015