Searchlight

name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A light source that projects a bright beam of light in any direction, generally for military use.
  2. 2
    a light source with reflectors that projects a beam of light in a particular direction wordnet
  3. 3
    The light from the above source.
Verb
  1. 1
    To scan or sweep across like a searchlight. transitive

    "A dozen air corps of fireflies searchlighted the spot for an instant."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A census-designated place in Clark County, Nevada, United States.

Synonyms

All synonyms
lamplight sourcespotlight

Example

More examples

"Ziri turned on the searchlight."

Etymology

From search + light. Compare West Frisian sykljocht (“searchlight”), Dutch zoeklicht (“searchlight”), Danish søgelys (“searchlight”), Swedish sökarljus (“searchlight”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.