different between seek vs notice

English

Etymology

From Middle English seken (also sechen, whence dialectal English seech), from Old English s??an, with influence from Old Norse sœkja, whence the hard /k/ sound (compare beseech); both from Proto-Germanic *s?kijan? (“to seek”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh?g- (“to seek out”). Cognate with West Frisian sykje, Dutch zoeken, Low German söken, German suchen, Danish søge, Icelandic sækja, Norwegian Bokmål søke, Norwegian Nynorsk søkja, Swedish söka.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /si?k/, s?k
• Homophone: Sikh
• Rhymes: -i?k

Verb

seek (third-person singular simple present seeks, present participle seeking, simple past and past participle sought)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To try to find; to look for; to search for.
2. (transitive) To ask for; to solicit; to beseech.
   • 1611, Bible (King James Version), Luke xi. 16

     Others, tempting him, sought of him a sign.

   • 1960, Lobsang Rampa, The Rampa Story:

     “My, my! It is indeed a long way yet, look you!” said the pleasant woman of whom I sought directions.

3. (transitive) To try to acquire or gain; to strive after; to aim at.
   • 1880, George Q. Cannon, How the Gospel is Preached By the Elders, etc.:

     But persecution sought the lives of men of this character.

   • 1886, Constantine Popoff, translation of Leo Tolstoy's What I Believe:

     I can no longer seek fame or glory, nor can I help trying to get rid of my riches, which separate me from my fellow-creatures.

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To go, move, travel (in a given direction).

   • Ryght so he sought […] towarde Sandewyche where he founde before hym many galyard knyghtes

5. (transitive) To try to reach or come to; to go to; to resort to.

   • Seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba: for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, and Bethel shall come to nought.

   • 1726 (tr.), Alexander Pope, Homer's Odyssey, Book II, line 33

     Since great Ulysses sought the Phrygian plains

6. (intransitive) To attempt, endeavour, try

   Our company does not seek to limit its employees from using the internet or engaging in social networking.

7. (intransitive, computing) To navigate through a stream.

   Synonym: scrub

   • 2009, Jit Ghosh, Rob Cameron, Silverlight 2 Recipes: A Problem-Solution Approach (page 541)

     Most of the changes made to this control are to accommodate the various constraints that playback of streaming media may impose in broadcast streams, such as the inability to seek through the media.

Quotations

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:seek.

Usage notes

• The word is sometimes used to mean "try" or "want". This usage is criticized by Fowler in the entry "Formal Words".

Synonyms

• look for
• search

Derived terms

Related terms

• hide and seek
• seeker

Translations

Noun

seek (plural seeks)

1. (computing) The operation of navigating through a stream.
   • 2012, Aidong Zhang, Avi Silberschatz, Sharad Mehrotra, Continuous Media Databases (page 120)

     The number of seeks to retrieve a shot […] depends on the location of those frames on physical blocks.

Anagrams

• eeks, ekes, kees, seke, skee

Estonian

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle Low German sêkhûs (“hospital”) (equivalent to sêk +? hûs). From Proto-West Germanic *seuk, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *seukaz (“sick”). Compare German Siechenhaus (“infirmary”), English sickhouse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?se?k/
• Rhymes: -e?k
• Hyphenation: seek

Noun

seek (genitive seegi, partitive seeki)

1. almshouse
   1. A residence and shelter for sick people in the Middle Ages.
   2. (colloquial) A nursing home, retirement home; poorhouse

Declension

References

• seek” in Sõnaveeb

English

Alternative forms

• not. (abbreviation)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French notice, from the Latin notitia.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n??t?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?no?t?s/, [?no???s]
• Hyphenation: no?tice

Noun

notice (countable and uncountable, plural notices)

1. (chiefly uncountable) The act of observing; perception.
   • How ready is envy to mingle with the notices which we take of other persons?

2. (countable) A written or printed announcement.

3. (countable) A formal notification or warning.

5. (chiefly uncountable) Advance notification of termination of employment, given by an employer to an employee or vice versa.

6. (countable) A published critical review of a play or the like.
   • 1989, The New York Times Theater Reviews, 1920- (volume 18, page 167)

     The first-night audience, yes. The first-night reviewers, not exactly. The notices have so far been mixed, only The Financial Times having delivered itself of an unequivocal rave.

7. (uncountable) Prior notification.
8. (dated) Attention; respectful treatment; civility.

Synonyms

• (attention): heed, regard; see also Thesaurus:attention

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

notice (third-person singular simple present notices, present participle noticing, simple past and past participle noticed)

1. (transitive, now rare) To remark upon; to mention. [from 17th c.]
   • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 2004, p. 88:

     Numberless are the arguments […] that men have used morally and physically, to degrade the sex. I must notice a few.

2. (transitive) To become aware of; to observe. [from 17th c.]
   • 1991, Gregory Widen, Backdraft

     So you punched out a window for ventilation. Was that before or after you noticed you were standing in a lake of gasoline?

3. (obsolete, transitive) To lavish attention upon; to treat (someone) favourably. [17th–19th c.]
   • 1815, Jane Austen, Emma, vol. I, ch. 3

     She would notice her; she would improve her; she would detach her from her bad acquaintance, and introduce her into good society; she would form her opinions and her manners.

4. (intransitive) To be noticeable; to show. [from 20th c.]
   • 1954, Barbara Comyns, Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead, Dorothy 2010, p. 9:

     The blackness didn't notice so much when she was born; but it's unmistakeable now.

Synonyms

• recognize

Antonyms

• ignore
• neglect

Translations

Anagrams

• conite, ecotin, neotic, noetic

French

Etymology

From Latin notitia

Noun

notice f (plural notices)

1. instruction

   Avez-vous lu la notice avant de monter le meuble?

Further reading

• “notice” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).