seek

See also sek

English

Etymology

From Middle English seken (also sechen), from Old English sēċan (“to seek; try to find, to look for, make search for; try to get; strive to effect, aim at, strive after; seek after, try to provide for; try to find out by investigation or examination; enquire about; try to learn by asking, ask, ask for, inquire; look to for, expect from; visit, go to; resort to; go, move, proceed; approach, attain to; attack, pursue, follow”), with influence from Old Norse sœkja, whence the hard /k/ sound (compare beseech); both from Proto-Germanic *sōkijaną (“to seek”) (compare West Frisian sykje, Low German söken, Dutch zoeken, German suchen, Danish søge). Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”).

Pronunciation

• IPA: /siːk/, sēk

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: Sikh
• Rhymes: -iːk

Verb

seek (third-person singular simple present seeks, present participle seeking, simple past and past participle sought)

1. (transitive) To try to find, to look for, to search.

   I seek wisdom.

2. (transitive) To inquire for; to ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
   • 1960, Lobsang Rampa, The Rampa Story:

     “My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.

3. (transitive) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
   • 1880, George Q. Cannon, How the Gospel is Preached By the Elders, etc.:

     But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.

   • 1886, Constantine Popoff, translation of Leo Tolstoy's What I Believe:

     I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To go, move, travel (in a given direction).
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:

     Ryght so he sought [...] towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes [...].

Quotations

For more examples of usage of this term, see the citations page.

Synonyms

• look for
• search

Derived terms

• aseek
• beseek
• forseek
• misseek
• seek out

Related terms

• hide and seek
• seeker

Translations

to try to find

• Arabic: بحث (ar) (báHatha)
• Armenian: փնտրել (hy) (p’ntrel)
• Aromanian: caftu (rup), tser (rup)
• Burmese: ရှာ (my) (sha)
• Czech: hledat (cs)
• Danish: søge (da)
• Dutch: zoeken (nl), nastreven (nl)
• Esperanto: serĉi (eo)
• Faroese: søkja (fo)
• Finnish: etsiä (fi)
• French: chercher (fr)
• Friulian: cirî
• Georgian: ძებნა (ka) (jebna)
• German: suchen (de)
• Greek: ζητώ (el) (zitó)
• Hebrew: חִפֵּשׂ (he) (chipés)
• Hungarian: keres (hu), kutat (hu)
• Indonesian: mencari (id), mencari-cari (id)
• Italian: cercare (it)
• Japanese: 探す (ja) (さがす, sagasu), 探し回る (ja) (さがしまわる, sagashi-mawaru)
• Khmer: ស្វែងរក (km) (svaeng rɔɔk)

• Korean: 찾다 (ko), 추구하다 (ko)
• Latin: quaerere (la)
• Latvian: meklēt (lv)
• Lithuanian: ieškoti (lt)

  Mandarin: 找 (cmn) (zhǎo), 找尋 (cmn), 找寻 (cmn) (zhǎoxún), 尋找 (cmn), 寻找 (cmn) (xúnzhǎo), 搜索 (cmn) (sōusuǒ)

• Mandarin: trad. 找尋, simpl. 找寻 (pinyin: zhǎoxún), trad. 尋找, simpl. 寻找 (pinyin: xúnzhǎo), trad. and simpl. 搜索 (pinyin: sōusuǒ), trad. and simpl. 找 (pinyin: zhǎo)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: søke (no), lete (no)

• Old English: sēċan (ang), nēosian (ang)
• Polish: poszukiwać (pl), szukać (pl)
• Portuguese: procurar (pt)
• Romanian: căuta (ro)
• Russian: искать (ru) (iskát'), разыскивать (ru) (razyskivatʹ), пытаться найти (ru) (pytatʹsja najti)
• Scottish Gaelic: lorg (gd), sir (gd), iarr (gd)
• Slovak: hľadať (sk)
• Spanish: buscar (es)
• Swedish: söka (sv)
• Turkish: aramak, bulmaya calismak (tr)
• West Frisian: sykje (fy)
• ǃXóõ: ǃxáa

Anagrams

• ekes, kees, seke