Search by individual words and phrases

By default, Yandex searches for all forms of the word specified in the query (differing by gender, case, number, and so on) but ignores the word's cognates belonging to a different part of speech.

You can refine your query using operators.

Search for a word in the specified form

Operator

Syntax

Query description and example

!

!word

Finds documents containing the word "mountain" in the specified form:

!mountain

You can use multiple operators in one query.

Search for documents with a specific word

Operator

Syntax

Query description and example

+

word₁ +word₂

Finds documents that definitely contain the words "forest" and "river" and may contain the word "mountain".

mountain +forest +river

You can use multiple operators in one query.

Note

Yandex doesn't guarantee that search results will include every document matching the query.

Search by quotation

Search for documents containing query words in the specified sequence and form.

Operator

Syntax

Query description and example

"

"word₁ word₂ ... wordₙ"

Finds documents containing this quotation:

"fell down stood up"

Search by quotation with a missing word

Alert

Used only as part of the " operator.

Operator

Syntax

Query description and example

*

"word₁  * word₂ ... wordₙ"

The operator is separated by spaces.

Finds documents containing this quotation, including the missing words:

"fell down * up"

One operator matches a single missing word.

Search for documents with any word from the query

Operator

Syntax

Query description and example

|

word₁ | word₂ | ... | wordₙ

The operator is separated by spaces.

Finds documents containing at least one of the following words: "mountain", "river", or "forest":

mountain | river | forest

You can use multiple operators in one query.

Search for documents that don't have a specific word

Operator

Syntax

Query description and example

-

word₁ word₂ ... -wordₙ -wordₙ₊₁

Only the word preceded by the operator is excluded. The excluded word should be placed at the end of the search query.

Finds documents containing the words "climb" and "mountain", but not "Elbrus":

climb mountain -Elbrus

You can use multiple operators in one query.

Alert

If you place this operator before a number, the search algorithms will read it as a negative number you want to find. For the operator to work, put the text fragment starting with a number in quotation marks.