google

verb

goo·​gle ˈgü-gəl 

variants or Google

googled or Googled; googling ˈgü-g(ə-)liŋ  or Googling; googles or Googles

transitive verb

: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (someone or something) on the World Wide Web

googleable

ˈgü-gə-lə-bəl 

adjective

or Googleable

The Massachusetts trio may not have picked an easily Googleable name …

—Leah Greenblatt

Did you know?

Google vs. Googol

The verb google and the noun googol are commonly confused because they have similar pronunciations. Google is the word that is more common to us now, and so it is sometimes mistakenly used as a noun to refer to the number 10¹⁰⁰. That number is a googol, so named by Milton Sirotta, the nephew of the American mathematician Edward Kasner, who was working with large numbers like 10¹⁰⁰. Google, on the other hand, is the name of a search engine as well as a verb that refers to searching the Internet using the Google search engine. (The search engine’s name was inspired by the number: the founders of Google chose the name to reflect their mission “to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.”) You can remember that the number is spelled googol by remembering that a googol has lots of o’s.

Two related words, googolplex and googleplex, are also commonly confused. A googolplex is the number 1 followed by a googol of zeros; the Googleplex is the Mountain View, California headquarters of Google.

Examples of google in a Sentence

Then where are they going, if not to Faulkner and Achebe and Naipaul?  … To the movies; to television (hours and hours); to Googling obsessively (hours and hours); to blogging and emailing and text messaging … —Cynthia Ozick, Harper's, April 2007

The Sports Gal and I delayed dinner plans so I could analyze the replays like a police chief. Eventually she realized we weren't leaving the house, so she made herself a sandwich and headed upstairs to Google divorce lawyers. —Bill Simmons, ESPN, 6 Dec. 2004

Have you ever googled yourself, maybe late at night, when nobody else was around? It's OK, you can admit it—everybody does it. —Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News, 17 Apr. 2004

Recent Examples on the Web

The panic of waking up with a giant, underground zit—then desperately Googling how to get rid of a cystic pimple ASAP—is something most of us can relate to. —Jenna Ryu, SELF, 13 Sep. 2024

Of course, nothing prevents travelers from Googling their trips. —Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez, Fortune Europe, 12 Aug. 2024

The convenience of access to online technology has meant that some people bypass seeing a medical professional, choosing to google their symptoms instead. —New Atlas, 6 Aug. 2024

There’s a certain joy derived from picking out a truly next-level kid-friendly wallpaper print, bassinet, or mobile—which any parent feverishly googling nursery ideas (and the decor that goes with) can attest to. —Mackenzie Schmidt, Architectural Digest, 23 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

Google, trademark for a search engine

First Known Use

2000, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

google

verb

goo·​gle ˈgü-gəl 

googled; googling -g(ə-)liŋ 

: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the Internet