# Why can't we search for words that are three letters long? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [November 11, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976 "2007-11-11T01:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/1 "2007-11-11T01:21:04Z")
When I try to search for a three-letter word on IMDB, i get a message saying that the word is “too short”. Google allows three-letter word searches, so why not IMDB? ---
**Author:** ![Fiveroptic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiveroptic/32/8257_2.png) [@Fiveroptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveroptic)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/2 "2007-11-11T01:49:01Z")
[QUOTE=DaveRaver] When I try to search for a three-letter word on IMDB, i get a message saying that the word is “too short”. Google allows three-letter word searches, so why not IMDB? [/QUOTE] In fact, the [Internet Movie Database](http://imdb.com/) _does_ allow for three-letter searches; it’s the Straight Dope Message Board (and many others) that don’t allow it. I believe it has something to do with straining the search function because there are so many words that are only three letters long, many of which wouldn’t be relevant to the actual search. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/3 "2007-11-11T03:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=Fiveroptic] In fact, the [Internet Movie Database](http://imdb.com/) _does_ allow for three-letter searches; it’s the Straight Dope Message Board (and many others) that don’t allow it. I believe it has something to do with straining the search function because there are so many words that are only three letters long, many of which wouldn’t be relevant to the actual search. [/QUOTE] Yep, that’s right. Allowing searches for three letter words would put a great strain on the system, or so I am given to understand. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/4 "2007-11-11T03:43:20Z")
The shorter the allowable search, the greater the database and accompanying index size. The necessary storage space and processing power goes up rapidly if you include short words. 4 characters as the minimum seach value is often chosen as a compromise between usefulness and processing overhead. It’s too bad that we have many 3-letter acronyms in the language. Exactly _how much_ strain would be imposed on the system has never been determined, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/5 "2007-11-13T01:30:31Z")
I thought it was because we’d crash the board searching for words that end in _-gry_. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/6 "2007-11-13T02:07:57Z")
I thought it was to keep me from doing vanity searches. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/7 "2007-11-13T17:36:48Z")
That I couldn’t easily search on my three-letter ID was one of the reasons I changed it. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/8 "2007-11-13T19:23:23Z")
[QUOTE=Kat] I thought it was to keep me from doing vanity searches. 😃 [/QUOTE] Exactly the reason **Knead** tries to encourage people to refer to **Knead** as **Knead** rather than as **KTK**. 🙂 There’s a separate attempt to discourage **Kneady** , but that’s an unrelated position. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/9 "2007-11-14T02:51:33Z")
How difficult would it be to allow three letter searches but exclude the biggies, like “the” and “and?” Google regularly omits the common ones, but allows the rest. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/10 "2007-11-14T02:59:52Z")
[QUOTE=levdrakon] How difficult would it be to allow three letter searches but exclude the biggies, like “the” and “and?” Google regularly omits the common ones, but allows the rest. [/QUOTE] For one answer, look to the OP: > [@](#): > > When I try to search for a three-letter word on IMDB, i get a message saying that the word is “too short”. Google allows three-letter word searches, so why not IMDB? Word count: 33 Number of 3-letter words: 6 (excluding “the”) Percentage of 3-letter words: 18.2 Maybe it’s just me, but that seems like an awfully significant percentage. ---
**Author:** ![Puzzler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d07c76/32.png) [@Puzzler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Puzzler)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/11 "2007-11-14T09:21:44Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] For one answer, look to the OP: Word count: 33 Number of 3-letter words: 6 (excluding “the”) Percentage of 3-letter words: 18.2 Maybe it’s just me, but that seems like an awfully significant percentage. [/QUOTE] Number of unique 6-letter words: 5 Percentage of 6-letter words: 15.15 Still high. Just saying. ---
**Author:** ![bbs2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@bbs2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bbs2k)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/12 "2007-11-14T09:51:47Z")
Somedays I just wish I could enter “TMI” into the search feature, then read all day long. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/13 "2007-11-14T11:15:57Z")
Folks, the search function on this board is, for whatever reason, pretty wonky as it is. It also apparently causes the board to go into a funk where it refuses to talk to people for minutes on end at times. Adding anything to the function that would increase the load on the engine is what we call a Bad Idea. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/14 "2007-11-16T11:05:18Z")
Exceptions to the 3-letter rule can be specified in the settings, if the need arises. For example, if the messageboard was about web design, they could list “CSS” or “PHP” as acceptable search terms, while the rest of the 3-lettered words would continue to be overlooked. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/15 "2007-11-16T12:45:35Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] Exceptions to the 3-letter rule can be specified in the settings, if the need arises. For example, if the messageboard was about web design, they could list “CSS” or “PHP” as acceptable search terms, while the rest of the 3-lettered words would continue to be overlooked. [/QUOTE] Aha! So we CAN begin politicking to have “TMI” made searchable? Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-cant-we-search-for-words-that-are-three-letters-long/425976/16 "2007-11-16T15:09:04Z")
Many boards exclude three-letter English conjunctions and pronouns from being indexed by the search engine.