探す
Meaning in Englishsearch, look for
Animated kanji stroke order
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Word context
What it means
探す (sagasu) means to actively try to find or locate something that is missing, desired, or not immediately known. The core concept is intentional seeking—applying effort or attention to discover a person, object, information, place, or option—whether by looking around physically, checking sources, or asking others.
Main meanings
- 1. Searching for information or answers, such as checking records, websites, or references rather than physically scanning a space.
- 2. Seeking opportunities or options (jobs, services, dates), emphasizing the process of looking among alternatives.
- 3. Trying to locate a person (contacting, checking whereabouts) or to trace someone's presence.
- 4. Examining places or things methodically (searching pockets, rooms, files) with the intent to discover a concealed or unknown item.
How to use it
Used across everyday speech and writing, 探す (sagasu) appears in casual plain forms, polite forms, and compound verbs; it's common when asking for help locating lost items, requesting someone to look up information, or describing a personal search for options—polite requests use the -ます form and written language may prefer alternatives for specific searches (e.g., technical database queries), while conversational Japanese commonly uses it for immediate, real-world seeking.
Variants and close terms
- 捜す (sagasu) — search for lost people or objects (emphasis on investigating).
- 探る (saguru) — probe or feel around; more like testing or exploring than straightforward searching.
- 調べる (shiraberu) — investigate or check; often used for facts or data rather than physical searching.
- 見つける (mitsukeru) — to find; describes the result rather than the act of searching (contrast).
Composition
探 (saga) combines the hand radical (扌) suggesting an action or manual search with a phonetic/semantic component that conveys looking into or examining; the hiragana す marks the verb ending, so together the kanji and kana form the verb meaning 'to search' in regular conjugation.
Origin
The verb existed in spoken Old and Middle Japanese and was later written with the kanji 探 after Chinese character adoption; its sense of deliberate seeking became stable in medieval and early modern texts, and the modern kana spelling and conjugations were standardized in the Meiji–Taishō language reforms.
Word class
verb (godan verb, 五段動詞)