Below are examples of how to type in searches. If you use quotation marks to get exact matches, you might get a shorter list of search results. However, the items are more likely to have the specific information you want. Items near the top of the list usually contain the most occurrences of the word or phrase. When you type in a search, you can use any combination of capital and/or lowercase letters because the search ignores case.

TYPE: TO FIND:
"dog" Items containing EXACT matches to the word dog.
"dogs and cats" Items containing EXACT matches to the phrase dogs and cats.
dog Items containing dog, dogs, dogged, or other forms of the word dog.
For all types of searches below, you can use quotation marks to get exact matches. Otherwise the encyclopedia will look for all forms of the word.
dog and cat Items containing BOTH dog AND cat.
dog or cat Items containing dog OR cat.
dog cat Items containing dog OR cat. Typing two words is the same as typing or between them.
dog not cat Items containing dog but NOT cat.
dog near/x cat Items in which dog appears within x number of words of cat. Use any number between 1 and 9999. For example, type dog near/10 cat to find all items in which dog appears within 10 words of cat.
dog adj cat Items in which cat immediately follows dog. Adj stands for adjacent.
d?g Items containing any three-letter words that start with d and end with g. The single ? in the middle of a word acts as a wild card for any single character.
d??g Items containing any four-letter words that start with d and end with g. The two ?'s in the middle of a word act as wild cards for any two characters.
d*g Items containing any words that start with d and end with g. The * acts as a wild card for any number of characters.
d$ug Items containing any four-letter words that start with d and end with g, as well as any items that include dug. The $ can be a wild card or stand for nothing.
dach~hound Items containing words that start with dach and are about the same length as the misspelled word dachhound, such as the real word dachshund. This type of search will find words that resemble but might not match everything after the ~ symbol. The ~ symbol is especially useful when you are not sure how to spell a word.
Any of these operators (", and, or, not, near/x, adj, ?, *, $, ~) can be used in combinations. For example:
"dogs and cats" or dach~hound Items containing the exact phrase dogs and cats OR the word dachshund.
To search for several words or phrases, you can use the "Word Search: More Options" boxes, selecting operators from the menus (and, or, not, adj, near/4, near/9, near/16). You can also enter the entire search in the first box or in the main "Word Search" box.