"Case-insensitive" refers to a feature or characteristic of a system or software where the distinction between uppercase and lowercase letters is not relevant or disregarded. This means that when performing searches or comparisons, the system or software treats uppercase and lowercase letters as identical or equivalent. For example, a case-insensitive search would treat "apple" and "Apple" as the same word, returning results for both variations. This is similar to how Google searches often work, where the search engine disregards the case of letters when retrieving results.
Note: The provided meaning of the answer is for the latest New York Times crossword puzzle clue: Like Google searches, typically. Explanations are generated by AI and may be inaccurate.