search engine
compound.compound. a computer program or website that helps you find information on the internet by typing in keywords. In computing, it is a piece of software that looks through a specific database or a large collection of files to find particular data.
compound. a software system designed to carry out web searches, which involves systematic searching of the World Wide Web for particular information specified in a textual web search query. In computing, it refers to a specialized software component or system designed to index and retrieve information from a private database or local file system rather than the public internet.
Which search engine do you use most often?
If you want to find the best local restaurants, just type the name of your city into a search engine.
The company's primary goal is to optimize its website so that it appears on the first page of results in every major search engine.
usually used with the verbs 'use', 'query', or 'optimize for'.
this is a compound noun where 'search' acts as a noun adjunct; remind students that while Google is the most famous example, the term refers to the technology itself.
I looked it on the search engine.I looked it up using a search engine.you search 'for' something 'on' or 'using' a search engine; you do not 'look' the engine itself for information.
Last updated July 22, 2026