# Searches: wild-cards, phrases

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches-wild-cards-phrases/340305
**Category:** About This Message Board
**Created:** [January 17, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches-wild-cards-phrases/340305 "2006-01-17T02:41:50Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2006, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches-wild-cards-phrases/340305/1 "2006-01-17T02:41:50Z")

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I know our Search function is ideosyncratic, but is there a way to do wild cards? ie, trichin\* for trichina, trichinosis, trichinellosis, trichinmisspelled…?

Or to search for phrases, like “gas prices”?

Thanks in advance!

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### Author: ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches-wild-cards-phrases/340305/2 "2006-01-17T02:52:11Z")

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> [@MaryEFoo](#):
>
> trichin\* for trichina, trichinosis, trichinellosis, trichinmisspelled…?

Exactly like that.

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### Author: ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches-wild-cards-phrases/340305/3 "2006-01-17T17:12:42Z")

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> [@Q.E.D.](#):
>
> Exactly like that.

What about phrases or multiple words? I was going to open a thread to ask that exact question, but I’ll just jump on this one instead.

And what if one of the words you’re searching for is 4 letters or less… is that OK?

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### Author: ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/searches-wild-cards-phrases/340305/4 "2006-01-17T19:13:41Z")

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Phrases, no. Multiple words are implicity connected by “and”. You can specify “or” instead. If any of the words is too short (or too common), you’ll get a message to that effect and it won’t be used in the search.