Fuzzy search requests

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Fuzzy search requests

Use fuzzy searching to help find a word, even if it is misspelled. For example, a fuzzy search for the word "apple" could find "appple" or "aple." Fuzzy searching can be useful when you search text that contains typographical errors—for example, informal emails, or text that has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR).

The % character adds fuzziness to the search string, and the number of % characters specifies the number of differences the search engine ignores when it searches for a word. The position of the % character(s) specifies how many letters at the start of a word must match exactly.

For example, if you type ba%nana, the search returns any word that begins with "ba" and has no more than one difference between it and the word "banana." If you type b%%anana, the search returns any word that begins with "b" and has no more than two differences between it and the word "banana."