Help: This help section is replaced by the search results when you first begin searching. You can use the “...” button to show/hide the search filters and the “?” button to show/hide help text during a search.

To search, enter the word or translation in the text box to see matching results. By default, the search matches against both the word and its glosses (translations) but you can further restrict this by using the search filters, which can also be used to filter results by language or parts of speech. Note that English translations, like Tolkien, mostly use British spellings: “colour” not “color”. There are a few additional advanced search options:

Wildcards (*): This can be used as match placeholder. The normal search for “re” matches text ending containing the text “re” anywhere. The search “*re” matches text ending with “re”; “re*” matches text beginning “re”; “*re*” matches text with “re” in the interior; “r*e” matches text that starts with an “r” and ends with an “e”.

Multi-match (,): A comma “,” can be used for optional multi-match criteria. The search “dream, sleep” will find any word that matches either “dream” or “sleep”.

Multi-match (+): A plus “+” can be used for required multi-match criteria. The search “dream+sleep” will find any word that matches both “dream” and “sleep”.

Word-only or Gloss-only: The prefix “word=” means a multi-match criteria applies only to words. The prefix “gloss=” means a multi-match criteria applies only to glosses (translations). For example, “word=lor+gloss=dream” will match any word containing “lor” whose gloss also contains “dream”.

All these advanced search options (including wildcards) may be combined. If you use both “,” and “+” then the search breaks down across the “+” first, then the “,”. For example, “word=lor+gloss=dream,sleep” matches words containing “lor” whose glosses contain either “dream” or “sleep”.