seek

S1E1E1K5
/ˈsiːk/[ˈsɪi̯k]

verb

To try to find; to look for; to search for.

“I seek wisdom.”

Similar
look forsearch forscrubsearchtryattemptessayassay
OriginMiddle English seke ← Old English sēċan ← Proto-West Germanic *sōkijan →
CommonScrabble 8
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

seek1

verbseek (third-person singular simple present seeks, present participle seeking, simple past and past participle sought or (verb sense 7 or verb sense 8, otherwise nonstandard) seeked)

present singular third person seeks · participle present seeking · participle past sought · past sought · error unknown tag nonstandard participle past verb seeked · error unknown tag nonstandard past verb seeked · first person past singular sought · archaic present second person singular seekest · past second person singular sought · archaic past second person singular soughtest · present singular third person seeks · archaic present singular third person seeketh · past singular third person sought · past plural sought · past subjunctive sought · participle present seeking

  1. ambitransitiveTo try to find; to look for; to search for.

    I seek wisdom.

    2 more examples

    "No, you wait. You're obviously a very sick man. I think you need to seek professional help. I'm sorry, but I can't help you."

    2005, Jonathan Luckett, Dissolve, page 158

    Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

    2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist

    Synonyms: look for, search for

  2. transitiveTo try to acquire or gain; to strive after.

    I sought my fortune on the goldfields.

    3 more examples

    But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.

    1880, George Q. Cannon, How the Gospel is Preached By the Elders, etc.

    I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.

    1886, Constantine Popoff, translation of Leo Tolstoy's What I Believe

    Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes.[…]She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

    1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
  3. transitiveTo try to reach or come to (a location).

    When the alarm went off I sought the exit in a panic.

    2 more examples

    Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Amos 5:5

    Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains

    1725, Homer, “Book II”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 56, line 33
  4. intransitiveTo attempt, to try [with infinitive ‘to do something’].

    Our company does not seek to limit its employees from using the internet or engaging in social networking.

  5. transitiveTo ask for; to solicit.

    I seek forgiveness through repentance.

    2 more examples

    Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke xi:16

    “My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.

    1960, Lobsang Rampa, The Rampa Story
  6. intransitiveobsoleteTo go, to move, to travel (in a given direction).

    Ryght so he sought[…]towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes

    1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book V, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC
  7. intransitivecomputingTo move to a specified location (particularly of a disk drive or similar device).

    This function instructs the hard drive to seek to a specified track.

  8. intransitivecomputingTo navigate through a data stream.

    Most of the changes made to this control are to accommodate the various constraints that playback of streaming media may impose in broadcast streams, such as the inability to seek through the media.

    2009, Jit Ghosh, Rob Cameron, Silverlight 2 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach, page 541

    Synonyms: scrub

nounseek (plural seeks)

plural seeks · alternative dialectal seech · alternative obsolete seeke

  1. computingThe operation of navigating through a stream.

    The number of seeks to retrieve a shot […] depends on the location of those frames on physical blocks.

    2012, Aidong Zhang, Avi Silberschatz, Sharad Mehrotra, Continuous Media Databases, page 120

Seek2

nounSeek (plural Seeks)

plural Seeks

  1. obsoleteObsolete form of Sikh.

Seek3

proper nounSeek (plural Seeks)

plural Seeks

  1. A surname from German.

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo try to find; to look for; to search for.

Similar
look forsearch for

verbTo navigate through a data stream.

Similar
scrub

More synonyms by meaning

verbtry to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of

Similar
searchlook for
Broader
actmove

verbmake an effort or attempt

Similar
tryattemptessayassay
Broader
actmove
Also see
assayattemptconsultessayheadlook forscrubsearchsherlockstrivetry

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

seek · verb, noun

  1. Old Englishsēcð
  2. Proto-Indo-European*séh₂gyeti“to seek out”
  3. Proto-Germanic*sōkijaną“to seek”
  4. Proto-West Germanic*sōkijan
  5. Old Englishsēċan
  6. Middle Englishseke
  7. Englishseek

From Middle English seke, seken, from Old English sēċan, sēċean, sœ̄ċan, from Proto-West Germanic *sōkijan, from Proto-Germanic *sōkijaną (“to seek”), from Proto-Indo-European *séh₂gyeti (“to seek out”), from *seh₂g- (“to follow, trace”). Cognates Cognate with Yola zeek (“to seek”), North Frisian schük, sjuk, säke (“to search, seek”), Saterland Frisian säike (“to search, seek”), West Frisian sykje (“to seek”), Alemannic German sueche, süeche (“to search, seek”), Bavarian suacha, suachn (“to search”), Central Franconian söke (“to search”), Cimbrian züuchan (“to seek”), Dutch zoeken (“to seek”), Low German söken (“to seek”), German suchen (“to seek”), Luxembourgish sichen (“to seek; to fetch”), Vilamovian zihia, zihja (“to seek”), Yiddish זוכן (zukhn, “to search, seek”), Danish søge (“to seek; to apply”), Faroese søkja (“to seek”), Icelandic sækja (“to seek”), Norwegian Bokmål søke (“to seek; to apply”), Norwegian Nynorsk søka, søke, søkja, søkje (“to seek; to apply”), Swedish söka (“to search”), Gothic 𐍃𐍉𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (sōkjan, “to seek”); also Cornish hedhes (“to reach; to achieve; to manage”), Welsh haeddu (“to deserve, merit”), Latin sāgiō (“to perceive quickly or keenly with the senses”), Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, “to go before, precede; to lead; to believe, hold”), Albanian gjegj (“to answer; to obey”), Hittite 𒊭𒀀𒆠𒄑𒍣 (ša-a-ki-ez-zi, “to seek out”). The Middle English and later Modern English hard /k/ derives from Old English sēcð, the third person singular.

More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-West Germanic

Full word history & related roots →

Seek · proper noun

* As a North/Low German surname, from Seek, variant of Seeck, shortened from compound names containing the element Sieg (“victory”) (as in Siegfried) or siech (“ill”). * As a Chinese surname, Romanized from 薛 (xuē), see Xue.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Afrikaans soek
  • soekto try to find
Ancient Greek ζητέω, ἰχνεύω
  • ζητέω (zētéō)to try to find
  • ἰχνεύω (ikhneúō)to try to find
Arabic بَحَثَ, طَلَبَ
  • بَحَثَ (baḥaṯa)to try to find
  • طَلَبَ (ṭalaba)to try to find
Bengali খোঁজা
  • খোঁজা (khō̃ja)to try to find
Bulgarian тъ́рся, тараша
  • тъ́рся (tắrsja)to try to find
  • тараша (taraša)to try to find
  • стремя се (stremja se)to try to reach or come to
  • искам (iskam)to ask for
Catalan cercar, buscar
  • cercarto try to find
  • buscarto try to find
  • voler aconseguirto ask for
Chinese Cantonese 搵 /揾
  • 搵 /揾 (wan²)to try to find
Chinese Mandarin 找, 找尋 /找寻
  • 找 (zhǎo)to try to find
  • 找尋 /找寻 (zhǎoxún)to try to find
  • 尋找 /寻找 (xúnzhǎo)to try to find
  • 搜索 (sōusuǒ)to try to find
Czech hledat
  • hledatto try to find
Danish søge
  • søgeto try to find
Dutch zoeken, nastreven
  • zoekento try to find
  • nastrevento try to find
Esperanto serĉi, provi
  • serĉito try to find
  • provito attempt to, to try to
  • petito ask for
Estonian otsima
  • otsimato try to find
Finnish etsiä, hakea
  • etsiäto try to find
  • hakeato try to find
  • tavoitellato try to acquire or gain
  • etsiäto try to acquire or gain
  • hakeato try to acquire or gain
  • pyrkiä (jonnekin)to try to reach or come to
  • etsiäto try to reach or come to
  • pyytääto ask for
  • anellato ask for
  • anoato ask for
  • pyrkiä (jotakin kohti)to travel (in a given direction)
  • kelata(computing) to navigate a stream
French chercher, quérir
  • chercherto try to find
  • quérirto ask for
German suchen
  • suchento try to find
Greek ζητώ
  • ζητώ (zitó)to try to find
Hebrew חִפֵּשׂ
  • חִפֵּשׂ (khipés)to try to find
Hindi ढूँढ़ना, ढूँढना
  • ढूँढ़ना (ḍhū̃ṛhnā)to try to find
  • ढूँढना (ḍhūṇḍhnā)to try to find
  • खोजना (khojnā)to try to find
Hungarian keres, kutat
  • keresto try to find
  • kutatto try to find
Icelandic leita
  • leitato try to find
Indonesian mencari, mencari-cari
  • mencarito try to find
  • mencari-carito try to find
Italian cercare, ricercare
  • cercareto try to find
  • ricercareto try to find
  • chiedereto ask for
  • chierereto ask for
Japanese 探す, 探し回る
  • 探す (sagasu)to try to find
  • 探し回る (sagashi-mawaru)to try to find
Korean 찾다, 추구하다
  • 찾다 (chatda)to try to find
  • 추구하다 (chuguhada)to try to find
Latin quaerō, quaerō
  • quaerōto try to find
  • quaerōto ask for
  • volō obtinēreto ask for
Latvian meklēt
  • meklētto try to find
Lithuanian ieškoti
  • ieškotito try to find
Malay mencari
  • mencarito try to find
Māori auhaha, haha
  • auhahato try to find
  • hahato try to find
  • kimito try to find
  • kimikimito try to find
  • rapato try to find
  • raputo try to find
  • rapuraputo try to find
  • whakaraputo try to find
  • pōrangito try to find
  • raparapato try to find
  • hāhauto try to find
  • ngaropokoto try to find
Norwegian Bokmål søke, lete
  • søketo try to find
  • leteto try to find
Persian جستجو کردن, جستن
  • جستجو کردن (jostoju kardan)to try to find
  • جستن (jostan)to try to find
Polish poszukiwać, szukać
  • poszukiwaćto try to find
  • szukaćto try to find
Portuguese procurar, pedir
  • procurarto try to find
  • pedirto ask for
Romanian căuta
  • căutato try to find
Russian иска́ть, разы́скивать
  • иска́ть (iskátʹ)to try to find
  • разы́скивать (razýskivatʹ)to try to find
  • пыта́ться найти́ (pytátʹsja najtí)to try to find
Scottish Gaelic lorg, sir
  • lorgto try to find
  • sirto try to find
  • iarrto try to find
Slovak hľadať
  • hľadaťto try to find
Spanish buscar, pretender
  • buscarto try to find
  • pretenderto attempt to, to try to
  • buscarto attempt to, to try to
  • procurarto attempt to, to try to
  • pedirto ask for
Swahili kutafuta
  • kutafutato try to find
Swedish söka, leta
  • sökato try to find
  • letato try to find
Thai มองหา
  • มองหา (mɔɔng-hǎa)to try to find
Turkish aramak
  • aramakto try to find
Ukrainian шука́ти
  • шука́ти (šukáty)to try to find
Urdu ڈھونڈھنا
  • ڈھونڈھنا (ḍhū̃ḍhnā)to try to find
Vietnamese tìm, tìm kiếm
  • tìmto try to find
  • tìm kiếmto try to find
Welsh chwilio am
  • chwilio amto try to find

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with seek

weekuniquecreekspeakpeakgreektechniqueweakgeekboutiquecritiqueobliquechicstreaksleekcheekpeekteaktweakmalikbleakphysiqueSikhsqueak
All rhymes →

Sounds the same

SikhSikh

Anagrams

kees
Cite this entry
APA

seek. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/seek

MLA

“seek.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/seek. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “seek,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/seek.

Source: seek on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.