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

See Examples For:

search engine

Links to the chats, some of which included personal and work information, would show up if a user of a search engine like Google used a site-specific search term.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

"This new practice by Google could affect the ability of search engine providers and, more broadly, other digital service providers to compete," it said.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

The EU said Google abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison-shopping service in search results and demoting those of competitors.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

A June 2025 MIT paper mentioned by Fernandez studied a group of students writing the same essay, with one using an LLM, one using a search engine, and one using just their brain.

From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026

Angie took one last look at the search results, then reluctantly closed down the search engine.

From "The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street" by Karina Yan Glaser