Word Root Match, Phrase Match, and Exact Match

Search options are built into various search fields in NetGovern Search to help narrow your search. In general, the Word Root Match option provides the widest pool of results and the Phrase Match option preserves word sequence. These two options are most useful for finding variations of words. The Exact Match option provides the most precise results.

The Word Root Match option returns the widest pool of results. NetGovern searches data indexed without punctuation or stop words and looks for different forms of all the words you search.

A root word does not have a prefix in front of the word or a suffix at the end of the word. It is the primary lexical unit of a word and of a word family. It contains the most significant aspect of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller components.

This type of search is not case sensitive, which means it does not matter if you use uppercase or lowercase letters. Word Root Match is useful when you do not know exactly what you are searching for but you know the words involved. In the following example, two root words are used in the search: employ and contract.

  • Example: Searching for Employment contract will produce the following:
  • Employment Contracts
  • employed as a contractor
  • contracting for employment

The Phrase Match option preserves the sequence of words in a search and is not case sensitive. It is useful when you have a clear idea of the results you are looking for, yet still want to see possible word forms. There may be stop words between the search words.

  • Example: Searching for employment contract will produce the following:
  • Employment Contract for 2019
  • my colleague's employment and contract
  • contracts for employment would not appear in results because the word sequence is reversed

The Exact Match option delivers search results that are exactly what you type in a search field. NetGovern Search performs a literal search on indexed string fields and is case sensitive.

NOTE
Do not use quotation marks around search words unless what you are searching for is in quotation marks..
  • Example: Searching for Employment Contract for 2019 will produce the following:
  • Employment Contract for 2019
  • employment contract for 2019 (lowercase) would not appear in results because it is case sensitive
  • You can use a search operator such as a wild card to expand the search.
  • Example: Searching for Employment Contract for 20* will produce the following:
  • Employment Contract for 2018
  • Employment Contract for 2019