Meaning & use
global search
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Meanings
nouncountablecomputing
A search that looks through everything in a whole program, website or document set, not only the part you are viewing.
Grammar: Takes a: run a global search.
Patterns
- a global search for something
Use global search to find the file in any folder.
A global search found every mention of the client.
The app has a global search bar at the top.
nouncountablecomputingtechnical
A command that finds every occurrence of a word or pattern in a document, often to replace it.
Grammar: Often paired with replace: global search and replace.
She did a global search and replace to fix the misspelling.
A global search of the code revealed three old functions.
Run a global search before renaming the variable.
Word forms
| plural | global searches |
|---|
Common combinations
- run a global search
- Run a global search to see all matches.
- global search and replace
- Use global search and replace to fix the typo everywhere.
- global search bar
- The global search bar sits at the top of the page.
- do a global search
- I did a global search for her name.
- global search results
- The global search results show files and emails together.
Synonyms and how they differ
- site search
- Site search covers just one website, but global search spans multiple areas of an application.
- full-text search
- Full-text search checks the whole contents of documents, while global search describes scope.
- find all
- Find all is a menu command that does the same inside a single file.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: global search or web search?
global search vs web search
Web search looks at the internet, not your own data.
Practice
A global search in an email program will usually:
Choose one answer.
Global means across the whole program. Searching only the open message would be a local search.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “global search”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.