search engine
"search-engine" is a 12-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“search engine” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An application that searches for, and retrieves, data based on some criteria, especially one that searches the Internet for documents containing specified words.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | search engine |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “search engine” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
search engine is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An application that searches for, and retrieves, data based on some criteria, especially one that searches the Internet for documents containing specified words.".
No misspelling variants are generated for search engine in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is search engine, spelled S-E-A-R-C-H- -E-N-G-I-N-E.
Definition
- 1An application that searches for, and retrieves, data based on some criteria, especially one that searches the Internet for documents containing specified words.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “search engine”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-A-R-C-H- -E-N-G-I-N-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.