cercar

Inherited from Late Latin circāre, from Latin circa, circus. Compare Occitan cercar and French chercher.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [sərˈka]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [seɾˈkaɾ]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -a(ɾ)

cercar (first-person singular present cerco, first-person singular preterite cerquí, past participle cercat); root stress: (Central) /ɛ/; (Valencia) /e/; (Balearic) /ə/

1. (transitive) to look for; to search

   Synonym: buscar

• recerca
• cercle

• “cercar”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “cercar”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “cercar” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “cercar” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cercar (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Late Latin circāre, from Latin circa, circus. Compare Portuguese cercar.

• IPA^(key): /θeɾˈkaɾ/, (western) /seɾˈkaɾ/

cercar (first-person singular present cerco, first-person singular preterite cerquei, past participle cercado)

1. to encircle
   • 1409, J. L. Pensado Tomé, editor, Rufus, Jordanus: Tratado de Albeitaria, Santiago de Compostela: Centro Ramón Piñeiro, page 135:

     Para esto ual reer o lugar jnchado et çercallo de semesugas para liurar ende o sange que y ha para seyr fora

     For this is valid to scrape the swollen place and then to encircle it with leeches, so freeing the blood that is there, letting it go out

2. to fence, to wall
3. to surround; to besiege
   • 1370, R. Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 284:

     por njhũa cousa nonnos leixes partir de Troya, desque a cercaren, ata que non seja tomada et ata que toda sua gent non seja destroýda per gran crueza

     Under no circumstance should you release them from Troia, from the very moment that they surround it, not until it is seized and all of its people is destroyed with great cruelty

• cercado
• Cercado

• cerca
• cerco

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “cercar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “cerc”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “cercar”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• “cercar”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “cercar”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• “cercar”, in Dicionário Estraviz de galego (in Galician), 2014–2026
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “cercar”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Derived from Italian cercare, French chercher and English search, all from Latin circō (“to traverse”). By surface analysis, cerca +‎ -ar.

• IPA^(key): /t͡serˈkar/, /ser-/

cercar

1. (transitive) to seek, to search for, to look for

• Alexander Gode (1951), Interlingua-English: A Dictionary of the International Language, New York: Storm Publishers, →OL

cercar (apocopated)

1. apocopic form of cercare

From Old Occitan cercar, from Late Latin circāre, from Latin circa, circus.

• IPA^(key): /seɾˈka/

• Audio (Béarn):

  (file)

cercar

1. to look for; to search
2. (with de) to seek to, to try, to attempt

• quèrre
• boscar
• recercar

• cercaire
• cercador

• cercle

• Joan de Cantalausa (2006), Diccionari general occitan a partir dels parlars lengadocians‎^[1], 2nd edition, →ISBN, page 243

Inherited from Late Latin circāre.

• IPA^(key): /t͡seɾ.ˈkaɾ/
• Rhymes: -aɾ

cercar

1. to encircle, to surround

• Galician: cercar
• Portuguese: cercar (see there for further descendants)

• Universo Cantigas - "cercar"

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese cercar, from Late Latin circāre, from Latin circa, circus. Compare Galician cercar.

• Hyphenation: cer‧car

cercar (first-person singular present cerco, first-person singular preterite cerquei, past participle cercado)

1. (transitive) to besiege
2. (transitive) to surround

• descercar

• cerca

• Guinea-Bissau Creole: serka

• “cercar”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “cercar”, in Dicionário inFormal (in Portuguese), 2006–2026
• “cercar” in Dicionário Aberto based on Novo Diccionário da Língua Portuguesa de Cândido de Figueiredo, 1913
• “cercar”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “cercar”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “cercar”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Inherited from Old Spanish cercar, from Late Latin circāre, from Latin circa, circus. Cognate with English search.

• IPA^(key): /θeɾˈkaɾ/ [θeɾˈkaɾ] (Spain, Equatorial Guinea)
• IPA^(key): /seɾˈkaɾ/ [seɾˈkaɾ] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -aɾ
• Syllabification: cer‧car

cercar (first-person singular present cerco, first-person singular preterite cerqué, past participle cercado)

1. (transitive) to corral, fence, fence off

• “cercar”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025