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What is a "Stemming

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Stemming is a method by which computers attempt to discover related words based upon given input. A stemming search instructs Concord to look for related words in your search terms. And it does this in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you with too many results. For those of you familiar with Concord’s wildcard search (using the asterisk) capabilities, think of stemming as a smarter (but not perfect) wildcard search.

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" Search?

Toggle the stemming feature on if you would like your search results to include words that are similar to, but have slightly different endings than, the word(s) you entered in the search bar. Stemming is often used to discover different adverb and verb-tenses for the keyword word entered. It is a more pointed form of the wildcard search - which can often return too many search results. 

Why is it useful?

Using Concord's stemming option will enable you to easily find pluralizations, alternative word endings, or words that might be similar in spelling. We think you will love this feature so much we made it a major part of the search experience. or the plural version of the the word(s) entered in the search bar.

For example, if you type “love” into the search bar and toggle stemming on, your search results will include passages which contain the words love, love’s, lovely, loving, loved, etc. 

Conducting a Stemming Search Using the New Search Options Menu

To conduct a stemming search in Concord:

1. Enter the word(s) you would like to search for in the search bar. 
2. Click (or Tap for iPhone/mobile) on the words "Search Options" just below the search bar. This will open the new Search Options menu. 
3. Click or tap on the gray button across from the words "Stemming." You will know the stemming search option has been activated once the gray button has turned blue and the words "Stemming" appear in a blue box under the search bar. 
4. Click or tap on the magnifying glass next to the search bar to conduct the search. 
5. To disable the stemming search option, open the Search Options menu and click or tap on the blue toggle, to turn it back to gray. 
6. To remove all activated search options at once, click or tap on the blue “Reset” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the Search Options menu. 
7. To remove all activated search options at once and simultaneously clear the words in the search bar, click or tap on the X located on the right-hand side of the search bar. 

An Example of when Stemming Search is Useful

Here's an example to better illustrate better how the stemming functionsfeature works: let’s Let’s do a search on the verb ‘create’ with no search options turned on. We find a modest number of results including the wonderful passage from Psalms 51:

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

Let’s say that passage inspires us to expand our search into for other ways in which the word ‘create’ is used across the books. We could do this with a stemming search. Just place a checkmark in the stemming box and re-run your search. This time the results will include Activate the Stemming option within the Search Options menu and click the magnifying glass next to the search bar to conduct your search. When you open the search results for any given book, this time, you will see a list of found words within each book. Click on a book and chapter (or book of the Bible) to see the additional stemming results:

create, created, creates, creating

between the search bar and the search results (if there are more than 100 results within one book, you will need to open a specific chapter within that book to see the found words. Using stemming in this way will enable you to find a greater variety of passages all related to the same topic. If you want to narrow your search to focus on any of those the found words, you can click them one of the blue found words and Concord will run a search on only the selected word. Let’s say we click on ‘creates’ and return only these results. We find the search results include this passage from Science and Health, page 472, line 25:

That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made.

Which pairs well with another of the stemming results on the word ‘created’. From Gen 1:27:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

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How is Stemming Different from a Wildcard Search Using an Asterisk * ?

If we compare this stemming with a traditional * wildcard search in Concord, we will find quite a difference. Make For example, make sure stemming is unselected deactivated and type in ‘creat*’ into the search bar.

This time our found words lists for each book/chapter includes 16 unique words:

create, created, creates, createth, creating, creation, creation's, creations, creative, creativeness, creator, creator's, creators, creature, creature's, creatures

This is a truly exhaustive list, and it includes some helpful words that our stemming search didn’t initially find. For example: seeing ‘createth’ was helpful. But it also includes many words that may not have been related to our study. And an exhaustive list of every word in the books which starts with creat... Therefore, we have significantly increased the number of citations we have to work through.

For example, we now have results that include ‘creation’, ‘creative’, ‘creator’, ‘creature’ and some of their variants. These are perfectly fine words to study, but they also may burden your study with too many unrelated words.

Any new search feature takes some getting used to, but we have found the stemming option is a wonderful compliment to the other search tools.

Using Stemming in the Search Options Menu

When Case Sensitive is toggled on, your search results will be limited to include only those words which match the case (uppercase or lowercase) of the term(s) in the search bar. 

For example, if you type “Truth” into the search bar with Case Sensitive toggled on, your search results will show only listings for “Truth” and not “truth.”

Overview of Search Options Menu 

The new Search Options menu makes it easier to use Concord’s advanced search functionality. Use the options within the new menu to refine your search results and more-easily find passages of interest. 

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Using the Search Options menu, you can conduct stemming, case sensitive, range, and proximity searches (or a combination of those searches); these options can guide your search to be broader or narrower, depending on the need. 

Accessing the Search Options Menu 

The Search Options menu is located just below the search bar. To open the Search Options menu, click (or tap for iPad/mobile) on the words “Search Options” and the menu will appear under the search bar.

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Activating a Search Option within the Menu

Toggle on a search option by clicking or tapping the gray button next to the option you would like to activate. When you do so, the button will turn blue. After activating the last two options, a corresponding box will appear where you can enter additional information. 

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Conducting a Search

Enter a word(s) in the search bar, click or tap on “Search Options” to open the menu, toggle on any options you are interested in applying to your search, and click/tap the magnifying glass icon or hit “Enter” on your keyboard. The results shown will be based on on the word(s) you search for and the search options you applied. Steps 1-4 in the image below walk you through the process.

Image Removed

If you type a new word(s) into the search bar, the same search options will be applied to your new search unless you remove the previously selected options. 

Removing Search Options

To remove a particular search option, open the search options menu and click or tap on the toggle next to the search option you would like to deactivate. The toggle should turn from blue to gray. 

To remove all previously selected search features/filters at once, click the X located on the inside of the right-hand side of the search bar or click the blue “Reset” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the Search Options menu. 

Image Removedin our search results. There are some helpful words, as createth, that were not in our stemming search. However, the wildcard search also includes words that we may not find relevant to our search topic, such as creatures. 

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Overview of Search Options Menu 

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