Proximity Searching

Enables searching for two or more terms that appear within a specified distance of one another.

Procedure: Place quotation marks around the terms you want to search for, followed by a tilde ~ and a number indicating the maximum number of words separating the terms.

For example:

“metabolic mechanism”~3

searches for the words metabolic and mechanism within 3 words of each other.

If a proximity operator is included inside double quotes “~” it is ignored

In a proximity search the word order makes a difference. The search results returned for a proximity search will follow the order of the words placed within quotes when retrieving matching hits.

For example: "large cats"~2 finds a totally different set of results from "cats large"~2.

A proximity search can include more than two, or any number of words placed within quotes.

Example: "natural forest brazil"~4

Please note that the words placed within quotes are searched precisely. For example the noun "Brazil" would not find matches for the derivative adjective "Brazilian" when part of a proximity expression. A separate search i.e. "natural forest brazilian "~4 would be required to match results where the term "Brazilian" appears.