diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 561517dc196..6141dc9af43 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ Features added
 
 * #11328: Mention evaluation of templated content during production of static
   output files.
+* #12474: Support type-dependent search result highlighting via CSS.
+  Patch by Tim Hoffmann.
 
 Bugs fixed
 ----------
diff --git a/doc/_themes/sphinx13/static/sphinx13.css b/doc/_themes/sphinx13/static/sphinx13.css
index e008e2fa36b..b0501d34394 100644
--- a/doc/_themes/sphinx13/static/sphinx13.css
+++ b/doc/_themes/sphinx13/static/sphinx13.css
@@ -691,7 +691,28 @@ div.sphinx-feature > p.admonition-title::before {
     justify-content: center;
     gap: 10px;
 }
-
 .sphinx-users-logos .headerlink {
     display: none;
 }
+
+/* -- search results -------------------------------------------------------- */
+
+ul.search {
+    padding-left: 30px;
+}
+ul.search li {
+    padding: 5px 0 5px 10px;
+    list-style-type: "\25A1";  /* Unicode: White Square */
+}
+ul.search li.context-index {
+    list-style-type: "\1F4D1";  /* Unicode: Bookmark Tabs */
+}
+ul.search li.context-object {
+    list-style-type: "\1F4E6";  /* Unicode: Package */
+}
+ul.search li.context-title {
+    list-style-type: "\1F4C4";  /* Unicode: Page Facing Up */
+}
+ul.search li.context-text {
+    list-style-type: "\1F4C4";  /* Unicode: Page Facing Up */
+}
diff --git a/doc/development/html_themes/index.rst b/doc/development/html_themes/index.rst
index 35a3b363a36..18a345d3f71 100644
--- a/doc/development/html_themes/index.rst
+++ b/doc/development/html_themes/index.rst
@@ -221,6 +221,64 @@ If your theme package contains two or more themes, please call
    ``sphinx.html_themes`` entry_points feature.
 
 
+Styling with CSS
+----------------
+
+The :confval:`!stylesheets` setting can be used to add custom CSS files to a theme.
+
+.. caution::
+
+   The structure of the HTML elements and their classes are currently not a
+   well-defined public API. Please infer them from inspecting the built HTML
+   pages. While we cannot guarantee full stability, they tend to be fairly
+   stable.
+
+Styling search result entries by category
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+.. versionadded:: 8.0
+
+The search result items have classes indicating the context in which the
+search term was found. You can use the CSS selectors:
+
+- ``ul.search li.context-index``:
+  For results in an index, such as the glossary
+- ``ul.search li.context-object``:
+  For results in source code, like Python function definitions
+- ``ul.search li.context-title``:
+  For results found in section headings
+- ``ul.search li.context-text``:
+  For results found anywhere else in the documentation text
+
+As a base for inheritance by other themes, the ``basic`` theme is
+intentionally minimal and does not define CSS rules using these.
+Derived themes are encouraged to use these selectors as they see fit.
+For example, the following stylesheet adds contextual icons to the
+search result list:
+
+.. code-block:: css
+
+    ul.search {
+        padding-left: 30px;
+    }
+    ul.search li {
+        padding: 5px 0 5px 10px;
+        list-style-type: "\25A1";  /* Unicode: White Square */
+    }
+    ul.search li.context-index {
+        list-style-type: "\1F4D1";  /* Unicode: Bookmark Tabs */
+    }
+    ul.search li.context-object {
+        list-style-type: "\1F4E6";  /* Unicode: Package */
+    }
+    ul.search li.context-title {
+        list-style-type: "\1F4C4";  /* Unicode: Page Facing Up */
+    }
+    ul.search li.context-text {
+        list-style-type: "\1F4C4";  /* Unicode: Page Facing Up */
+    }
+
+
 Templating
 ----------
 
diff --git a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/basic.css.jinja b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/basic.css.jinja
index 297b9bfaeff..53fbadb0b6a 100644
--- a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/basic.css.jinja
+++ b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/basic.css.jinja
@@ -115,15 +115,11 @@ img {
 /* -- search page ----------------------------------------------------------- */
 
 ul.search {
-    margin: 10px 0 0 20px;
-    padding: 0;
+    margin-top: 10px;
 }
 
 ul.search li {
-    padding: 5px 0 5px 20px;
-    background-image: url(file.png);
-    background-repeat: no-repeat;
-    background-position: 0 7px;
+    padding: 5px 0;
 }
 
 ul.search li a {
diff --git a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
index 3efa5165933..2b058e13bec 100644
--- a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
+++ b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ if (typeof Scorer === "undefined") {
     // and returns the new score.
     /*
     score: result => {
-      const [docname, title, anchor, descr, score, filename] = result
+      const [docname, title, anchor, descr, score, filename, context] = result
       return score
     },
     */
@@ -47,6 +47,14 @@ if (typeof Scorer === "undefined") {
   };
 }
 
+// Global search result kind enum, used by themes to style search results.
+class SearchResultContext {
+    static get index() { return  "index"; }
+    static get object() { return "object"; }
+    static get text() { return "text"; }
+    static get title() { return "title"; }
+}
+
 const _removeChildren = (element) => {
   while (element && element.lastChild) element.removeChild(element.lastChild);
 };
@@ -64,9 +72,13 @@ const _displayItem = (item, searchTerms, highlightTerms) => {
   const showSearchSummary = DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS.SHOW_SEARCH_SUMMARY;
   const contentRoot = document.documentElement.dataset.content_root;
 
-  const [docName, title, anchor, descr, score, _filename] = item;
+  const [docName, title, anchor, descr, score, _filename, context] = item;
 
   let listItem = document.createElement("li");
+  // Add a class representing the item's type:
+  // can be used by a theme's CSS selector for styling
+  // See SearchResultContext for the class names.
+  listItem.classList.add(`context-${context}`);
   let requestUrl;
   let linkUrl;
   if (docBuilder === "dirhtml") {
@@ -140,7 +152,7 @@ const _displayNextItem = (
   else _finishSearch(resultCount);
 };
 // Helper function used by query() to order search results.
-// Each input is an array of [docname, title, anchor, descr, score, filename].
+// Each input is an array of [docname, title, anchor, descr, score, filename, context].
 // Order the results by score (in opposite order of appearance, since the
 // `_displayNextItem` function uses pop() to retrieve items) and then alphabetically.
 const _orderResultsByScoreThenName = (a, b) => {
@@ -250,6 +262,7 @@ const Search = {
     searchSummary.classList.add("search-summary");
     searchSummary.innerText = "";
     const searchList = document.createElement("ul");
+    searchList.setAttribute("role", "list");
     searchList.classList.add("search");
 
     const out = document.getElementById("search-results");
@@ -320,7 +333,7 @@ const Search = {
     const indexEntries = Search._index.indexentries;
 
     // Collect multiple result groups to be sorted separately and then ordered.
-    // Each is an array of [docname, title, anchor, descr, score, filename].
+    // Each is an array of [docname, title, anchor, descr, score, filename, context].
     const normalResults = [];
     const nonMainIndexResults = [];
 
@@ -339,6 +352,7 @@ const Search = {
             null,
             score + boost,
             filenames[file],
+            SearchResultContext.title,
           ]);
         }
       }
@@ -356,6 +370,7 @@ const Search = {
             null,
             score,
             filenames[file],
+            SearchResultContext.index,
           ];
           if (isMain) {
             normalResults.push(result);
@@ -477,6 +492,7 @@ const Search = {
         descr,
         score,
         filenames[match[0]],
+        SearchResultContext.object,
       ]);
     };
     Object.keys(objects).forEach((prefix) =>
@@ -587,6 +603,7 @@ const Search = {
         null,
         score,
         filenames[file],
+        SearchResultContext.text,
       ]);
     }
     return results;
diff --git a/tests/js/searchtools.spec.js b/tests/js/searchtools.spec.js
index 1ff789a4a56..cfe5fdcf7ed 100644
--- a/tests/js/searchtools.spec.js
+++ b/tests/js/searchtools.spec.js
@@ -38,7 +38,8 @@ describe('Basic html theme search', function() {
         "",
         null,
         5,
-        "index.rst"
+        "index.rst",
+        "text"
       ]];
       expect(Search.performTermsSearch(searchterms, excluded)).toEqual(hits);
     });
@@ -53,7 +54,9 @@ describe('Basic html theme search', function() {
         '',
         null,
         15,
-        'index.rst']];
+        'index.rst',
+        'text'
+      ]];
       expect(Search.performTermsSearch(searchterms, excluded)).toEqual(hits);
     });
 
@@ -68,7 +71,8 @@ describe('Basic html theme search', function() {
         "",
         null,
         7,
-        "index.rst"
+        "index.rst",
+        "text"
       ]];
       expect(Search.performTermsSearch(searchterms, excluded)).toEqual(hits);
     });
@@ -86,7 +90,8 @@ describe('Basic html theme search', function() {
         "",
         null,
         2,
-        "index.rst"
+        "index.rst",
+        "text"
       ]];
       expect(Search.performTermsSearch(searchterms, excluded, terms, titleterms)).toEqual(hits);
     });
@@ -107,7 +112,8 @@ describe('Basic html theme search', function() {
           '',
           null,
           16,
-          'index.rst'
+          'index.rst',
+          'title'
         ]
       ];
       expect(Search._performSearch(...searchParameters)).toEqual(hits);