You can fine-tune your search query and increase the accuracy of its results by using special characters and operators, such as +, -, ~, .., OR, and quotation marks.

Force Google to include a term by preceding the term with a "+" sign.

The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only those pages that match your search terms exactly.

Precede each term you do not want to appear in any result with a "-" sign.

Find synonyms by preceding the term with a ~, which is known as the tilde or synonym operator.

Note: Currently the synonym operator is only supported on Google Web and Directory search.

Specify synonyms or alternative forms with an uppercase OR or | (vertical bar).

Use quotes (" ") to group compound words and phrases together.

Specify that results contain numbers in a range by specifying two numbers, separated by two periods, with no spaces.

This table summarizes how to use basic search operators.

You may include any of these operators multiple times in a query.

Notation	Find result	Example
terms1 terms2	with both term1 and term2	[ after-school activity ]
term1 OR term2 term1 | term2	with either term1 or term2 or both	[ Tahiti OR Hawaii ] [ Tahiti | Hawaii ]
+term	with term (The + operator is typically used in front of stop words that Google would otherwise ignore or when you want Google to return only pages that match your search terms exactly. However, the + operator can be used on any terms.)	[ +i spy ]
-term	without term	[ twins -baseball ]
~term	with term or one of its synonyms (currently supported on Web and Directory search)	[ google ~guide ]
number1..number2	with a number in the specified range	[ trail-a-bike $50..$350 ]
"phrase"	with the exact phrase, a proper name, or a set of words in a specific order	[ "I have a dream" ] [ "Rio de Janeiro" ]