Vim Recipes ‣ Searching ‣ Searching for any Word
You want to search the current file for an arbitrary word.
Use /word to search forward in the file; ?word to search backward.
You can use incremental (find-as-you-type) search by using the :set incsearch option. Having done so, your cursor will move to the first match as you enter your query. This enables you to receive feedback on the effectiveness of your query. Once satisfied with your query, press <Enter> to run it. If you were interested more in the erratic cursor movement than searching, pressing <Esc> will cancel the search and return to where you began.
You're not limited to finding literal strings; word can also be a regular expression. For example /^[A-Z] searches for lines beginning with capital letters.
To repeat your search use // or ??.
After finding the first match using either of the above methods, you can press the n (mnemonic: next match) key to jump to the next match. To jump to the previous match, use N.