Otsitavad

Otsitavad is an Estonian grammatical form derived from the verb otsida, meaning to search or to seek. It is the present passive participle in the plural, used as an attributive adjective to describe nouns. As a participle, it indicates that the noun it modifies is intended to be searched for or is searchable.

In usage, otsitavad commonly describes items that can be found by searching, or that are subject to being searched. The sense can range from “to be sought” in a planning or investigative context to “searchable” in data, cataloging, or information retrieval contexts. The form agrees with the noun in number and case, so it is used with plural nouns such as otsitavad dokumendid (documents to be searched / searchable documents) or otsitavad andmed (data that can be searched).

Morphologically, otsitavad is the plural nominative form of the present passive participle otsitav, which itself is built from the verb otsida with the passive participle suffix -tav. Other related forms include otsitav (singular) and various declined forms used in different cases and numbers, all preserving the sense of “to be searched” or “searchable.”

See also: otsida, otsitav, passive participles in Estonian.