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Added 15 October 2026

grep

/ɡɹɛp/ proper noun

proper noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about grep at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A program which selects lines in a file which match a given pattern.

verb

To use a program such as grep to search in a file.
You can't grep dead trees.
To search anything (perhaps a paper document by eye).

Origin

From an idiomatic command sequence in the qed and ed text editors: ‘g/re/p’, meaning: globally search for a regular expression and print.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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