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

AI search engine Perplexity has been testing ads in the United States since 2024, while Google is also testing ads in the AI "overviews" its namesake search engine has been offering since last year.

From Barron's

Learn how to use AI “seriously,” not as a search engine.

From The Wall Street Journal

Alternatively, if one proves far better than the others it might grab most of the market, as Google did with search engines.

From The Wall Street Journal

On a whim, I reach for the keyboard again and type “Bermuda” and “spearfishing” into the search engine.

From Literature

There was also a control group that used internet search engines.

From Barron's