This page explains what you can type into the search box and what you’ll get back. You don’t need to know anything about how the searcher works behind the scenes — the short version is: type a Latin word in any form, an English word, an author, or a grammar term, and the searcher will try to find it. The sections below go through the details, with live examples you can click to see the actual results.
Search covers every illustration, exercise, and passage on the site, plus the example sentences that live on vocabulary pages. It can also point you to selected explanatory notes about grammar and usage. You can search in several different ways, described below.
Type a Latin word or form into the search box.
Example: amo
The search page may show a vocabulary entry at the top:
Below that, it shows examples that use the word, such as:
If search recognizes the word as part of a lemma, it also shows the related principal parts under the result, as above. Each of those forms is a link — click one to search for that form.
↑ Back to topYou may type macrons if you like, but you do not have to.
For example, searching for promitto
can find examples of prōmittō, prōmittere, prōmīsī, prōmissum. Search treats
plain vowels and macronized vowels as equivalent for Latin matching.
You do not need to know the dictionary form.
Example: promittit
Search finds examples such as:
The result can still show the lemma, even though you searched an inflected form rather than the headword. This is useful when you meet a form in a passage and want to learn what word it belongs to.
↑ Back to topType the words without quotation marks when you want examples containing all of them, even if the order is not the important part.
Example: Carthago delenda est
Search finds:
Unquoted multi-word search is flexible. It looks for results that contain the words, not only for one exact string.
Try it: search “Carthago delenda est” →
↑ Back to topUse quotation marks when the exact wording matters.
Example: "future imperative"
Search finds places where that phrase appears, such as:
The search status says (exact phrase) when phrase mode is
active. Exact phrase search is especially useful for English grammar terms.
Without quotation marks, future imperative can mean “find
results that contain both future and imperative somewhere.”
With quotation marks, "future imperative" means “find this
phrase.”
Try it: search “future imperative” as a phrase →
↑ Back to topSome grammar searches show a separate group headed Explanatory notes mentioning this term. These are selected instructional notes from the vocabulary pages. Each result includes a short excerpt and links directly to the relevant explanation.
Search without quotation marks when the words matter but their exact order
does not. For example,
ablative supine
finds a note explaining that construction. Use quotation marks for a fixed
term, such as
"double dative".
Try it: search “ablative supine” →
↑ Back to topSearch is not only for Latin words. You can also search:
promise"future imperative"SenecaAtticus
A search for Atticus finds
many results, including examples from Cicero’s Letters to Atticus and
Latin words such as Atticus when they occur in the notes.
On the full search page, use the Show filters under the search box to choose:
All is the broadest search. It can also include example sentences that live on vocabulary pages. The filters narrow the main list of illustration, exercise, and passage results. Query-level guidance on the first page, including vocabulary entries, related sections, and explanatory notes, can still appear when it is relevant to what you typed.
↑ Back to topSuggestions appear after you type at least two characters, and come in two kinds.
Vocabulary suggestions link directly to a vocabulary page. Content suggestions link to a search page — these are words found in example notes, but not necessarily formal vocabulary entries, and are labeled with how many illustrations they appear in.
future may show no suggestion, but searching
"future imperative"
still finds results — press Search even if nothing is suggested.
If there are no exact results, search may show close matches. This helps with two situations: a misspelling, and a shortened word.
A misspelling. Searching cartago
(missing the h) finds no exact result, but offers close matches such as:
A shortened word. If you only remember the start of a word, type it and
press Search. A stub like cart
has no exact match either, but its close matches include the forms
Carthāgō takes in real sentences:
Because it works on the letters you type, a stub can also pull in a similar-looking
neighbour — cart may also surface Carteia, a different Spanish
town — so scan the results and pick the one you meant.
Search can take you to a chapter or vocabulary section devoted to a grammar topic, find examples whose notes use the term, and show selected explanations from vocabulary pages. These are different kinds of results, so one grammar search may show more than one group.
Search for the topic by name. For example,
deponent verbs points
to chapters whose titles teach that topic, while
prepositions points to
the Prepositions vocabulary section. A matching section link is shown once;
search does not repeat every vocabulary entry from that section merely because
its section title matched.
Some broad terms also have editorially chosen chapter links. For example,
nouns can point to the noun
declension chapters even though their titles use the individual declension
names.
Use an unquoted search when all the words matter but their order does not:
ablative supine.
Put quotation marks around a fixed term when the words must occur together and
in that order:
"double dative".
Quoted search is stricter, so an unquoted search can find a relevant chapter or
note that an exact phrase does not.
Selected instructional notes appear under Explanatory notes mentioning this term. The matching words are highlighted in the excerpt, and the headword links to the exact paragraph on its vocabulary page. This panel is curated: ordinary definitions, labels, cross-references, and incidental asides are not all treated as grammar explanations.
The panel complements ordinary illustration, exercise, passage, and vocabulary-example results. It appears only on the first results page.
A grammar abbreviation is expanded only when it includes its period. For
example, abl. is treated as an
abbreviation for ablative; abl is not. This prevents a
short ordinary letter sequence from being mistaken for a grammar term.
A result card is meant to answer the first question quickly: is this the example you were looking for? It usually shows:
Click the Latin text to open the full page at that exact example, with all its notes and study material. The result card itself stays brief on purpose — just enough to decide whether to open it.
When your query matches a selected grammar or usage explanation, search shows it above the main example list under Explanatory notes mentioning this term. The matching words are highlighted in the excerpt. Click the note’s vocabulary headword to open the page at the exact explanatory paragraph.
These notes complement the examples rather than replace them. A search such as
ablative supine may
therefore show an explanation and ordinary illustration, exercise, passage, or
vocabulary-example results on the same page.
Suppose you search amo. You may
first see the vocabulary entry, then examples using forms of amō. Open
the Latin sentence when you want the full notes. If the example has a
principal-part row underneath it, use that row to keep exploring: click
amāre to run a new search for the infinitive,
or amāvī to look for perfect forms.
The same habit works when you start from a form found in a passage. Search
promittit, scan the result,
then use the linked principal parts if you want more examples from the same
word family.
When search can connect your term to one Latin lemma, it prints that lemma’s principal parts under the result:
Each form is a search link, not a dictionary link. Clicking
amāre searches for amare, so one
good result can lead you to other examples of the same word.
The row appears when you search a dictionary form
(amo), a principal part
(promitto), or an inflected
form found in the notes (promittit).
It is usually absent when you search:
"future imperative"promise
That is expected. For example,
"future imperative"
can find good results without showing principal parts, because the match is a
grammar phrase in the notes, not one particular Latin word.
amo.This works best for words that have formal vocabulary entries.
promittit, and press Search.This is useful when you meet a word in a passage but don’t yet know its dictionary form.
promitto.The links are search links — they help you gather examples, not just read a single dictionary entry.
Type the words of the phrase without quotation marks and press Search.
Example: Carthago delenda est.
Use this when you’re not sure whether the order, spelling, or surrounding
words will be exactly as you remember them.
Put the phrase in quotation marks and press Search. Example:
"double dative".
Use quotation marks for grammar terms and English phrases when the exact
words matter. A selected explanatory note may appear above the example results.
Type the author or work name and press Search. Examples:
Seneca,
Atticus. Search looks in
citations as well as notes and text, so a search like Atticus may find
examples from Cicero’s Letters to Atticus and examples where
Atticus itself is a Latin word in the notes.
A grammar phrase, author name, translation word, or citation may have no suggestion but still have search results.
Example: cartago may suggest
Carthago delenda est. Close matches are best for spelling mistakes. If
they’re not useful, try a shorter stub of the word — for instance
cart brings back sentences using
Carthāgine and Carthāginem. See
Search can show close matches for more.