Search Terminology


Click on the word for EBSCO's explanation

• Boolean--a command using AND, OR, NOT to retrieve information
• Expander--the ability to broaden a search by including similar words
• Field--the ability to focus a search by title, author, subject, keyword, or abstract
• Limiter--the ability to narrow a search by restricting results to publication date, full-text, material type, or language
• Nesting--uses a set of ( ) to embed and order more than one command in a Boolean operation
• Proximity--uses "W" or "N" and a number between search terms to retrieve results with the keywords within or near a designated number words
• Truncation--uses an * at the end of the root word to search for all forms of the word
• Wildcard--uses a ? in place of unknown letter or a # to retrieve alternate spellings

Search Strategies