What Is the Difference between a Search Engine and a Metasearch Engine?

A search engine sends out queries to websites to see if the website’s content best matches the search query entered into the search engine. It returns with a results page, ranked from most relevant, according to algorithms.

A metasearch engine submits queries to multiple search engines and aggregates the results into a list. The search engine can sort this list they came from, by subject, or by relevance. The user can then choose which results best match their intent.