1. To locate a specified piece of information in a table or file (see searching).
2. (find) In word processing, to locate the next occurrence of a specified piece of text. The search string may be set to be case-sensitive or case-insensitive, and also to find the string as a whole word or when embedded in a word. The search string may include wildcards, and the scope of the search may be the entire document, the current selection (see select), or the text forward or backward from the cursor. There is usually a ‘search again’ or ‘search next’ command that searches for the next occurrence of the string previously defined so that multiple occurrences can be located without having to retype the search string.
3. The locating of a specified piece of information or text.