Meanings
plural search engines
- computingAn application that searches for, and retrieves, data based on some criteria, especially one that searches the Internet for documents containing specified words.
The MEMEX search engine with Textract software has been proved able to search the 1,251,521 records of the Pre-1920 Catalogue in four minutes.
1985, Geoffrey Neate, Memex: evaluation of a search engine, →OCLC, page 412 more examples
It is clear that a search engine which was taking money for showing cellular phone ads would have difficulty justifying the page that our system returned to its paying advertisers. For this type of reason and historical experience with other media [Bagdikian 83], we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers.
1998 April, Sergey Brin, Lawrence Page, “The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine”, in Computer Networks and ISDN Systems, →DOIIf I type “I am grieving the loss of my dog” into a conventional search engine, the first result I get is a post from a Reddit forum called r/Pets; the post is titled “Struggling After Losing My Dog: Looking for Advice on Coping with Grief,” and the comments are from people who share their experiences of loss.
2026 June 3, Ted Chiang, “No, Artificial Intelligence Is Not Conscious”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC
present singular third person search engines · participle present search engining · participle past search engined · past search engined
- alternativeAlternative form of search-engine.
Translations
Afrikaans soekenjin
- soekenjinapplication that searches for data
Arabic مُحَرِّك بَحْث
- مُحَرِّك بَحْث (muḥarrik baḥṯ)application that searches for data
Catalan cercador, motor de cerca
- cercadorapplication that searches for data
- motor de cercaapplication that searches for data
Chinese Mandarin 搜索引擎, 搜索機 /搜索机
- 搜索引擎 (sōusuǒ yǐnqíng)application that searches for data
- 搜索機 /搜索机 (sōusuǒjī)application that searches for data
- 搜尋引擎 /搜寻引擎 (sōuxún yǐnqíng)application that searches for data
Czech vyhledávač
- vyhledávačapplication that searches for data
Danish søgemaskine
- søgemaskineapplication that searches for data
Dutch zoekmotor, zoekmachine
- zoekmotorapplication that searches for data
- zoekmachineapplication that searches for data
Esperanto serĉilo
- serĉiloapplication that searches for data
Estonian otsimootor, otsingumootor
- otsimootorapplication that searches for data
- otsingumootorapplication that searches for data
Finnish hakukone
- hakukoneapplication that searches for data
French moteur de recherche
- moteur de rechercheapplication that searches for data
German Suchmaschine
- Suchmaschineapplication that searches for data
Greek μηχανή αναζήτησης
- μηχανή αναζήτησης (michaní anazítisis)application that searches for data
Hebrew מנוע חיפוש
- מנוע חיפוש (m'nóa-khipús)application that searches for data
Hungarian keresőmotor, kereső
- keresőmotorapplication that searches for data
- keresőapplication that searches for data
Indonesian mesin pencari, mesin penelusur
- mesin pencariapplication that searches for data
- mesin penelusurapplication that searches for data
Irish inneall cuardaigh
- inneall cuardaighapplication that searches for data
Italian motore di ricerca
- motore di ricercaapplication that searches for data
Japanese サーチエンジン, 検索エンジン
- サーチエンジン (sāchi enjin)application that searches for data
- 検索エンジン (kensaku enjin)application that searches for data
Korean 검색 엔진
- 검색 엔진 (geomsaek enjin)application that searches for data
Malay enjin carian
- enjin carianapplication that searches for data
Norwegian Bokmål søkemotor
- søkemotorapplication that searches for data
Polish wyszukiwarka, szukajka
- wyszukiwarkaapplication that searches for data
- szukajkaapplication that searches for data
Portuguese máquina de busca, motor de busca
- máquina de buscaapplication that searches for data
- motor de buscaapplication that searches for data
- motor de pesquisaapplication that searches for data
- buscadorapplication that searches for data
Romanian motor de căutare
- motor de căutareapplication that searches for data
Russian поиско́вая систе́ма, поискови́к
- поиско́вая систе́ма (poiskóvaja sistéma)application that searches for data
- поискови́к (poiskovík)application that searches for data
- поиско́вая маши́на (poiskóvaja mašína)application that searches for data
Scottish Gaelic lorgair
- lorgairapplication that searches for data
Slovak vyhľadávač
- vyhľadávačapplication that searches for data
Spanish buscador, motor de búsqueda
- buscadorapplication that searches for data
- motor de búsquedaapplication that searches for data
Swedish sökmotor
- sökmotorapplication that searches for data
Thai โปรแกรมค้นหา
- โปรแกรมค้นหาapplication that searches for data
Turkish arama motoru
- arama motoruapplication that searches for data
Ukrainian пошуко́ва систе́ма, пошуко́ва маши́на
- пошуко́ва систе́ма (pošukóva systéma)application that searches for data
- пошуко́ва маши́на (pošukóva mašýna)application that searches for data
- пошуко́вий руші́й (pošukóvyj rušíj)application that searches for data
- пошукови́к (pošukovýk)application that searches for data
Welsh peiriant chwilio
- peiriant chwilioapplication that searches for data
Cite this entry
search engine. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/search%20engine
“search engine.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/search%20engine. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “search engine,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/search%20engine.
Source: search engine on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.