How to search in Vim

In Normal mode, type / and the word, then press ↵ to search forward. n goes to the next match and N to the previous one. Use ? instead of / to search backwards.

By Jai Pandya · Updated 4 November 2026

Try it here

Find the TODOs

Search for TODO with /TODO and ↵, and delete the line with dd. Then n finds the next one, and . repeats the delete.

1 of 2Search for TODO, then dd

1import { send } from './mail';

2export function remind(user) {

3 // TODO: check the opt-out flag

4 const subject = 'Your basket misses you';

5 const body = render('basket', user);

6 // TODO: limit to one a week

7 return send(user.email, subject, body);

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Type	What it does
`/word` `↵`	Search forward for `word`.
`?word` `↵`	Search backwards.
`n` / `N`	Next match / previous match. After a `?` search, `n` keeps going backwards.
`*` / `#`	Search forward / backwards for the whole word under the cursor.
`/word\c` `↵`	Ignore case for this search: `\c` anywhere in the pattern. `\C` forces case to match.
`/\<word\>` `↵`	Only the whole word, not `password` or `wordy`.
`/` `↵`	Search forward for the last pattern again.
`/` then `↑`	Step back through earlier searches (type a few letters first to see only those that start with them).
`:noh` `↵`	Clear the highlighting until the next search.

Case-insensitive search

Searches match case by default, so /todo won't find TODO. For one search, add \c to the pattern: /todo\c. To change it for good, turn on two options together: :set ignorecase smartcase. ignorecase ignores case everywhere; smartcase brings it back as soon as you type a capital letter, so /todo finds every spelling and /Todo finds only Todo. Put set ignorecase smartcase in ~/.vimrc, or vim.opt.ignorecase = true and vim.opt.smartcase = true in Neovim's init.lua. The setting applies to :s patterns too; smartcase doesn't apply to * and #.

Clear the search highlight

With the hlsearch option on, every match stays highlighted after a search. :noh (short for :nohlsearch) and ↵ hides the highlight until your next search; :set nohlsearch turns it off altogether. Neovim has hlsearch on from the start and clears it with Ctrl-l as well. Vim starts with it off; :set hlsearch turns it on.

incsearch is the other display option: it shows the first match while you are still typing the pattern. Neovim has it on, and Vim's defaults.vim turns it on.