Search

Several tools include a search box that allows you to specify advanced search query. The results returned will depend on the tool being used, but the syntax is fairly consistent throughout. Here are examples of searches:

  • love: match exact term love
  • love*: match terms that start with the prefix love and then a wildcard as one term
  • ^love*: match terms that start with love as separate terms (love, lovely, etc.)
  • *ove: match terms that end with the suffix ove as one term
  • ^*ove: match terms that end with suffix ove as separate terms (love, above, etc.)
  • love,hate: match each term separated by commas as separate terms
  • love\|hate: match terms separated by pipes as a single term
  • "love him": love him as an exact phrase (word order matters)
  • "love him"~0: love him or him love phrase (word order doesn't matter but 0 words in between)
  • "love her"~5: match love near her (within 5 words)
  • ^love*,love\|hate,"love her"~5: combine syntaxes

To complete a search, hit enter. Resetting a search is usually as simple as deleting the contents of the search box and pressing enter.

For a reminder of this syntax, you can hover over the question mark in the search box (or click on the question mark to see the contents appear as a dialog box).

Try the search with Corpus Terms:

In most cases the search box will display suggested terms as you type – these are corpus terms. The suggestions combine two types:

  1. the first suggestion is with the current search term as a prefix and then a wildcard (combining all word forms into one search)
  2. the remaining suggestions are comprised of the 5 most frequent exact terms (each term displayed separately)

Note that Voyant doesn't currently support regular expressions.

Next Steps