scanning
n. uncountablen. the act of looking through a text very quickly to find a specific piece of information. You use this skill when you search for a name in a list or a date in a story.
n. the process of reading a text rapidly in order to locate specific facts or keywords. Often contrasted with skimming, which focuses on the general gist rather than specific details.
Scanning the menu helped me find the vegetarian options quickly.
By scanning the index of the textbook, the student located the chapter on cellular biology in seconds.
Effective research requires a combination of deep reading for comprehension and rapid scanning to identify relevant citations within a vast corpus of academic literature.
Often used in the context of reading strategies or digital imaging; frequently paired with the preposition 'for'.
I am scanning to the documentI am scanning the documentWhen used as a gerund or noun describing the action, it does not require 'to' before the object being searched.