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Using Search Operators

To narrow or broaden the scope of your search, you can use search operators. There are several different types.

• Boolean operators
• Truncation
• Phrase search

Boolean operators

Boolean operators allow you to combine your search terms using the keywords AND, OR and NOT. Look at the diagrams in the table below to see how these terms will affect your results.

Truncation

If you use truncation (or wildcards) on a search term, your search results will contain documents including variations of that term.

For example:

light*
will retrieve, of course, light, but also terms like: lighting, lightning, lighters and lights.

Note that the truncation symbol will vary depending on where you search. The most common symbols are the asterisk (*) and question mark (?).

Phrase searching

Phrase searching is used to make sure that your search will retrieve a specific sentence. For example "durable wood products"  will retrieve much more relevant documents than if you were to search for the same terms without quotation marks.

Overview and examples

Using search operators in Google

Google offers numerous powerful search operators, including the operators mentioned on this page. There are some limitations and differences, however. For example, you do not have to type in AND, since this Google's default value. Also, you cannot use brackets to define the processing order of your operators. Nor can you use truncation. Be aware that you have to use a minus sign as the NOT operator (e.g. plastic OR stone -marble).