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Stemming is a method for matching word variations. SearchBlox provides out-of-the-box stemming support for content in 37 languages and the option to enable/disable stemming on an individual document collection basis.

## **Enabling Stemming**

  • Stemming can be enabled or disabled in collection settings as in the screenshot.

  • By default, the spelling suggestions will be disabled in collections.

  • Clear and Index the collection after the change.

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## **Stemming in Search**

  • By enabling stemming, inflected words are reduced to a root form.

  • Inflection refers to words taking different forms to express differences in tense, numbers, gender, etc. Most languages are inflected in this way.

  • For example, `running`, `runs` and `ran` are the inflected forms of `run`.

  • If a root word is searched, documents with inflected words and root words will be returned.

  • When stemming is enabled, if you search for the word `wonder`, documents with `wonders`, `wondering`, `wondered`, `wonderful`, etc., will be returned as results.

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  • Similarly, searching for inflected words ("wondering") will list documents with root and inflected words in the results.

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  • When stemming is disabled, only the words searched, and not the inflected forms, will appear in the results.

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Important Information:

Stemming can be enabled or disabled in SearchBlox’s collection settings. After saving the changes made, the collection needs to be cleared and then re-indexed for it to take effect.