search engine

American  

[surch en-juhn] / ˈsɜrtʃ ˌɛn dʒən /

noun

Digital Technology.

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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Etymology

Origin of search engine

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

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

Other Chinese firms on the list include search engine platform Baidu, electric car marker Nio and aircraft manufacturer Comac.

From BBC • Jun. 9, 2026

The search engine and cloud computing company is expected to spend the money raised on building data centers that feature its own custom chips, which Broadcom helps design.

From Barron's • Jun. 2, 2026

Whenever you use AI as a research assistant, subject-matter expert, or souped-up search engine, you need to grapple with the risk of hallucination—AI’s tendency to make up its own facts.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

Quickly I type Nathan’s name into a search engine.

From "Every Day" by David Levithan