search
n. countablen. an act of looking carefully for someone or something. You do this when you have lost an item or need to find information.
n. the act of looking through a place or area in order to find something or someone. Often used with the preposition 'for' to indicate the object being sought.
The police began a search for the missing keys.
After an hour of searching the house, I finally gave up on my search for the remote.
The rescue team coordinated a massive search across the mountain range, hoping to locate the hikers before the winter storm made the terrain impassable.
From Middle English serchen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sercher, Old French cerchier, from Late Latin circō, circāre (“to circle; go around; search for”), from Latin circa, circus. Not related to German suchen, which is cognate with English seek.
Commonly followed by the preposition 'for' when specifying the target of the action.
I did a search of my keysI did a search for my keysUse 'search of' for the place being looked through, but 'search for' for the object you want to find.