All words, any order

Searches for listing titles that contain all the words you entered (or variations of them), no matter what order they appear.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would find listings that had any of these titles: "DVD players Sony", "Sony DVD players", "Sony player for DVDs." Note: To find more matches, we automatically expand your search to include words with the same meaning as the ones you entered.

Any words, any order

Searches for listing titles that contain any of the words you entered that appear in any order.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would find listings that had any of these words in the titles: "DVD player," "Sony player," "Sony DVD," "DVD," "Sony," "player," and many others. 

Exact words, exact order

Searches for listing titles that contain the exact words you entered, in the exact order you entered them.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would only find listings had the words "Sony DVD player" in the title, in that order. "Sony DVD player in box" or "Sony DVD player used" would be matches, but "Sony player DVD" would not.

Exact words, any order

Searches the listing titles for the exact words you entered, in any order.

For example, searching for "Sony DVD player" would find titles that contained the exact words "Sony", "DVD" and "player" but in any order. "New Sony in box DVD player" or "DVD player, new Sony" would be matches, but "Sony DVD players" or "Sony DVDs player" would not.

Operator

What it does

Example

Quotation marks (also known as double-quotes)

Searches for the exact word or phrase in the listing title

"Action" DVD returns listings that have the exact words Action and DVD in the title in any order.

"Action DVD" returns listings that have these 2 words in the title in this specific order.

Parentheses around keywords separated by commas

Act together as an OR operator

Note: Use parentheses and commas together for best results

(purse,handbag) returns listings that contain either the word purse or handbag in the title.

Minus sign (-)

Acts as a NOT operator

Note: You need a space before the minus sign and no space after

Red -shoes returns listings that have red in the title and do not have shoes in the title.

bowl -(black,green) or bowl -black -green returns listings whose titles contain the word bowl but not the words black and green.

Expansion type

What it does

Example

Keyword to keyword

Modifies your keyword query to search for either your original keyword, or a synonymous keyword from our dictionary

Searches for red shoes will return listings that have the words red and either shoe or shoes in the title.

Keyword to category

Modifies your query to search for listings that have a specific keyword in the title or live in a specific related category.

Searches for Harry Potter DVD will return listings that have Harry Potter in the title and have either DVD in the title, or live in the DVDs category.

Keyword to item specifics

Modifies your query to search for listings that have the keywords from the original query in the title, or have particular item specifics used in the item description.

A search for Nike Golf will return listings that have golf in the title and either have Nike in the title, or have Brand=Nike specified in the item specifics section of the listing.