google

verb

goo·​gle ˈgü-gəl How to pronounce google (audio)
variants or Google
googled or Googled; googling ˈgü-g(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce google (audio) 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 adjective
or Googleable
The Massachusetts trio may not have picked an easily Googleable name … Leah Greenblatt

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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 This rule also applies to our trigger finger when wanting to check in with Dr. Google (aka googling it). Tiffany Leigh, Parents, 4 Feb. 2024 That moved one of his companions, Joe Nero, to suggest Googling it. Laura Reiley, Washington Post, 22 Jan. 2024 Do not Google their contact information or you could be misdirected as part of another scam — search on the platforms in question. Deborah Vankin, Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2024 Note: She got told of the Charlotte FC opportunity and accepted without Googling how far Charlotte was from Atlanta. Alex Zietlow, Charlotte Observer, 7 Feb. 2024 On her computer, the agents discovered, Winner had googled the Twitter account of a Taliban spokesperson and flights to Jordan. Ava Kofman, The New York Review of Books, 1 Feb. 2024 Flopping down on my couch and listening to something for 30–60 minutes—while resisting every urge to pick up my phone to check my texts or just google something quickly— has been a game changer. Rachel Wilkerson Miller, SELF, 27 Dec. 2023 Pike, who was nominated for her role as the film's aristocratic matriarch, dressed in a look befitting the film’s last act (for the spoiler averse: don’t Google it). Hannah Jackson, Vogue, 8 Jan. 2024 Try googling your city or county’s mental health authority or department of behavioral health, Nguyen says. Carolyn L. Todd, SELF, 3 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'google.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Google, trademark for a search engine

First Known Use

2000, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of google was in 2000

Dictionary Entries Near google

Cite this Entry

“Google.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

google

verb
goo·​gle ˈgü-gəl How to pronounce google (audio)
googled; googling -g(ə-)liŋ How to pronounce google (audio)
: to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the Internet

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