Learn Italian: Dov'è il dizionario? Lo cerco. - Where is the dictionary? I am looking for it.

Lo means "it" when referring to a masculine singular noun, which in this case is il dizionario. In Italian, these short "direct object" pronouns are placed immediately before the conjugated verb, giving us Lo cerco instead of "Cerco lo".

Why isn't there a word for "for" in Lo cerco?

The Italian verb cercare means "to look for" or "to seek". The "for" is already built into the verb itself, so you don't need to add an extra preposition like you do in English.

The translation says "I am looking", but isn't cerco just "I look"?

Yes! In Italian, the simple present tense like cerco covers both "I look" and "I am looking". You don't need a complex tense to express what you are doing right now.

Why is it written as Dov'è with an apostrophe?

When dove (where) is followed by a verb starting with a vowel, like è (is), Italians usually drop the final "e" and combine them with an apostrophe. This makes the sentence flow more smoothly.