or Googling; googles or Googles
Leah Greenblatt
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Google vs. Googol
The verb google and the noun googol are commonly confused because they have similar pronunciations. Google is the word that is more common to us now, and so it is sometimes mistakenly used as a noun to refer to the number 10100. That number is a googol, so named by Milton Sirotta, the nephew of the American mathematician Edward Kasner, who was working with large numbers like 10100. Google, on the other hand, is the name of a search engine as well as a verb that refers to searching the Internet using the Google search engine. (The search engine’s name was inspired by the number: the founders of Google chose the name to reflect their mission “to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.”) You can remember that the number is spelled googol by remembering that a googol has lots of o’s.
Two related words, googolplex and googleplex, are also commonly confused. A googolplex is the number 1 followed by a googol of zeros; the Googleplex is the Mountain View, California headquarters of Google.
Examples of google in a Sentence
Cynthia Ozick, Harper's, April 2007
The Sports Gal and I delayed dinner plans so I could analyze the replays like a police chief. Eventually she realized we weren't leaving the house, so she made herself a sandwich and headed upstairs to Google divorce lawyers.
—Bill Simmons, ESPN, 6 Dec. 2004
Have you ever googled yourself, maybe late at night, when nobody else was around? It's OK, you can admit it—everybody does it.
—Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News, 17 Apr. 2004
India Espy-Jones, Essence, 7 Apr. 2025
And, as anyone who has ever even googled Switzerland knows, its scenery is simply breathtaking all year long—from the flower fields around Lake Lucerne in Spring to the blanketed mountain peaks of Verbier all winter long.
—Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 31 Mar. 2025
If George had played it safe and hired Bronco Mendenhall, the alums would have had to Google him.
—Troy Renck, Denver Post, 28 Mar. 2025
After all, the role can be perceived as slightly dated; travelers have the ability to Google their destination or make dinner reservations directly from their phones instead of asking a knowledgeable member of the hotel’s team.
—Lydia Mansel, Southern Living, 26 Mar. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Google.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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