v. 1
To look for, seek.
v. 2
To look in (a place) for something.
I searched the garden for the keys and found them in the vegetable patch.
n. 1
An attempt to find something.
With only five minutes until we were meant to leave, the search for the keys started in earnest.
n. 2
The act of searching in general.
Search is a hard problem for computers to solve efficiently.

Related words

Phrases: search for search out search me search box search bar search field organic search marketing search engine optimization

Forms

Plural: searches → hunts, pursuits, huntings, quests…
Past participle: searched
e.g. searched → looked, sifted, investigated, examined…

Choose the right word

Search, Hunt or Chase?

Hunt never quite loses its association with field-sports, where it includes both search and chase; the search till the game is hunted out, and the chase till it is hunted down.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

seek Hide and seek / I count to three / Winter has come
sift Did you sift the flour before you made the cookie batter?
research He continued his research for a further ten years.
rummage Ziri started to rummage greedily in his mom's purse.
scour How our cat loves to scour someone else's dishes!

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
search		rising
seek		steady
sift		rising
research		steady
rummage		rising
scour		steady

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

3 letters: pry¹
4 letters: look¹, seek¹, hunt¹, comb¹, rake¹, sift¹
5 letters: quest¹, probe¹, sweep¹, delve¹, scour², grope¹
7 letters: seeking², hunting², explore², examine³, inquiry³, pursuit², inspect², inquire², enquiry³, enquire³, rummage², ransack²
8 letters: research², scrutiny³
10 letters: scrutinize³, scrutinise
11 letters: investigate⁴, examination⁵, exploration⁴
13 letters: investigation⁵

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (scour² = 2 syllables).