Title: Synonym help
Last modified: August 20, 2016

---

# Synonym help

 *  Resolved [deadhippo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/deadhippo/)
 * (@deadhippo)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/)
 * I’m trying out the synonym function but I can’t seem to get it to work. Can someone
   tell me what I am doing wrong?
 * I tried this originally
 *     ```
       whale = whales
       ```
   
 * and then
 *     ```
       whales = whale
       ```
   
 * and then
 *     ```
       'whale = whales'
       'whales = whale'
       ```
   

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * (@msaari)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2151699)
 * Do you have OR operator enabled?
 *  Thread Starter [deadhippo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/deadhippo/)
 * (@deadhippo)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2151701)
 * No. I have the AND operator enabled because I have the post date as the default
   order for the dates. I know that this is not how you imagined people using your
   search but I have good reasons. In my site the latest posts are the most relevant
   in most cases because the older posts are older products and may be sold out 
   or discontinued.
 * And also don’t want the results for “star” showing up when people search “star
   wars”, even if all the star wars posts appear first.
 * I guess from your question though that I won’t be able to use the synonym function
   with my current settings.
 *  Plugin Author [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * (@msaari)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2151801)
 * Yes, synonym function only works with OR queries (it turns “whale” to “whale 
   OR whales”).
 * You don’t have to use AND when you order by post date, those two are not connected.
   However, using AND is generally a good idea that leads to better results than
   OR search, as you’ve noticed.
 * Supporting synonyms with AND operator would require more complex search logic
   which I haven’t felt necessary to build so far. It’s complicated and only useful
   in limited cases.
 *  Thread Starter [deadhippo](https://wordpress.org/support/users/deadhippo/)
 * (@deadhippo)
 * [14 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2151863)
 * No worries. I guess I’ll just add plurals to the tags. Thanks.
 *  [whiteorb](https://wordpress.org/support/users/whiteorb/)
 * (@whiteorb)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2152110)
 * So what is the proper format?
 * whale = whales
    whales = whale ‘whale = whales’ ‘whales = whale’
 * Are they comma separated?
 *  Plugin Author [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * (@msaari)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2152111)
 * No apostrophes or commas, just one synonym pair per line.
 *  [whiteorb](https://wordpress.org/support/users/whiteorb/)
 * (@whiteorb)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2152112)
 * So whales = whale or whales=whale
 *  Plugin Author [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * (@msaari)
 * [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2152113)
 * Both work.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

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 * 8 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Mikko Saari](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msaari/)
 * Last activity: [14 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/synonym-help/#post-2152113)
 * Status: resolved