Etsinnäissä

Etsinnäissä is a Finnish term that functions as the inessive plural form of the noun etsintä, meaning a search, pursuit, or investigation. In everyday use it conveys the idea of being “in the searches” or “in the investigations,” typically referring to multiple ongoing efforts conducted by organizations or groups such as police, researchers, or journalists.

Grammatically, etsintä forms a plural stem etsinnö-, and the standard inessive plural is written etsinnöissä. The form etsinnäissä is rare and is generally regarded as nonstandard or dialectal, appearing mainly in older texts or in dialectal contexts. In modern Finnish, etsinnöissä is the common spelling for “in the searches/investigations.”

Usage examples illustrate its meaning: Poliisin etsinnöissä on ollut useita johtolankoja. Tutkimusryhmän etsinnöissä on tällä hetkellä useita tutkittavia tapauksia. Such sentences describe locations and contexts of multiple investigative efforts rather than a single quest.

In broader contexts, etsintä and its inflected forms are used beyond criminal investigations, including scientific fieldwork, archival or historical research, and investigative journalism. The term connects to the verb etsiä, “to search,” and to related nouns such as etsintäryhmä (investigation team) and etsintätoimenpiteet (investigative measures).

See also: etsintä, etsiä, in Finnish grammar and lexicon, as well as related terms for investigation and inquiry.