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Nov 13, 2026

Heratio Help Center article. Category: AI & Automation.

Fuzzy Search (Typo-Tolerant Search)

User Guide

Find records even when you misspell search terms. Fuzzy Search automatically detects typos and suggests corrections.

Overview

FUZZYSEARCHTypoDetection"DidYouMean?"SearchFallbackLevenshteinSuggeststheElasticsearchdistancecorrecttermfuzzymatchingmatchingwhenSQLfindsSOUNDEX/nothingFULLTEXTMetaphonenaturallanguagephoneticmatchingmatching

How It Works

When you search on the GLAM Browse page, fuzzy search runs automatically behind the scenes:

Usersearches"archieves"SpellCheck(LevenshteinPhonetic)HighconfidenceLowerconfidenceAuto-correct"Didyoumean:Searchesforarchives?""archives"ShowslinkFULLTEXTsearchOriginalsearch(naturallanguagestillrunsmatching)0results?ESfuzzyfallbackResultsshownwithalerts

What You'll See

"Did You Mean?" Suggestion

When fuzzy search detects a likely typo, you'll see a suggestion:

ℹ️Didyoumean:archives?Clickthelinktosearchwiththecorrectedterm.

Click the suggested term to re-run the search with the correction.

When the system is very confident about a correction, it automatically searches with the corrected term:

✅Showingresultsfor"archives"Searchinsteadfor:archieves

Click "Search instead for" to see results for your original (uncorrected) term.

Fuzzy Matches from Search Index

When no exact matches are found, the system uses the search index to find approximate matches:

⚠️Noexactmatchesfound.Showingfuzzymatchesfromthesearchindex.

Examples

Spelling Mistakes

TYPOCORRECTIONSYoutypeSystemsuggestsarchievesarchivesmusemmuseumlibarylibraryphotograpsphotographsmanuscripsmanuscriptscatalougecatalogue

Phonetic Matching (Sounds-Like)

PHONETICMATCHINGYoutypeSystemsuggestsJonsonJohnsonSmythSmithPietersePietersKerkKirk(phoneticmatch)Phoneticmatchingfindsnamesthatsoundalike,evenwhenspelledverydifferently.

Stemming and Natural Language

FULLTEXTMATCHINGYoutypeAlsofindsminingmine,mines,mined,minerarchivearchives,archival,archivedphotographphotographs,photographicFULLTEXTsearchusesnaturallanguageprocessingtomatchwordvariationsautomatically.

Search Layers

Fuzzy search combines four techniques for maximum coverage:

SEARCHLAYERS(inorder)1.LEVENSHTEINDISTANCECountscharacter-leveleditsbetweenwords."musem""museum"(1insertion=distance1)2.SOUNDEX/METAPHONE(Phonetic)Matcheswordsthatsoundalike."Jonson""Johnson"(samephoneticcode)3.MYSQLFULLTEXTNaturallanguagesearchwithstemming."mining"matches"mine","mines","miner"4.ELASTICSEARCHFUZZY(Fallback)WhenSQLreturns0results,thesearchindexfindsapproximatematchesacrossallfields.

Disabling Fuzzy Correction

If you want to search for your exact term without correction:

  1. After a corrected search, click "Search instead for: [original term]"
  2. This adds noCorrect=1 to the URL, bypassing correction
Showingresultsfor"archives"Searchinsteadfor:archievesClickthislink

Fuzzy search and semantic search are complementary features:

COMPARISONFeatureFuzzySearchSemanticSearchPurposeFixtyposExpandvocabularyHowitworksCharacter/soundSynonymdictionarysimilarityrelationshipsExample"musem""museum""photo""photograph"AlwaysactiveYesUsertoggleNeedssetupNoAdminimportstermsBESTTOGETHER:Fuzzycatchesyourtypos,thenSemanticexpandsyourcorrectedquerywithrelatedterms.

Troubleshooting

ProblemSolutionWrongsuggestionshownClick"Searchinsteadfor"touseyouroriginaltermNosuggestionofferedThetermmaybetoodifferentfromanyknownvocabularyTryadifferentspellingResultsstillemptyThesearchindexmayneedrebuilding.Contactyoursystemadministrator.SuggestionisadifferentFuzzysearchmatchesagainstwordentirelyknownvocabulary.Theclosestmatchmaynotbewhatyouwant.Use"Searchinsteadfor"link.

Need Help?

Contact your system administrator or archivist if you need assistance finding records.

Part of the Heratio AHG Framework Last Updated: February 2026