Part of a string submitted to a search engine. The simplest form of search term is a single word: this requests pages which contain that word.
Engines vary, but other commonly-supported terms are :-
- a phrase in "..." (the given words must appear together)
- a boolean expression such as linux OR hurd
- a regular expression1 such as program*
- a special term such as link:www.everything2.com
- a search term preceded by a "-" (excludes pages which contain the term)
- a search term preceded by a "+" (includes only pages which contain the term)
1 Search engines only allow very limited forms of regular expression