This is the 588th most frequent Italian word.
cerca
"Searches" or "looks for."
Here, 'cerca' is the conjugated third-person singular form of the verb 'cercare', meaning 'to look for'.
Luca cerca il suo telefono ovunque.
Luca is looking for his phone everywhere.
In this sentence, 'circa' means 'about' or 'approximately', used as an adverb.
La casa è situata circa cinque chilometri dalla città.
The house is located about five kilometers from the city.
In this case, 'cerca di' indicates an attempt or effort to do something, followed by an infinitive verb.