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Terms & Connectors

A guide to Boolean search commands in Westlaw, Lexis+, and Bloomberg Law

Terms & Connectors - Lexis+

OPERATOR

EXAMPLE

DESCRIPTION

and

budget and deficit

Finds words that are far apart from one another or in different sections

atleastx

atleast10(cercla)

Requires that a term or terms appear "at least" x times in a document

or, (space)

ship or vessel or boat

Finds documents that contain either or both of the words or phrases linked by or

and not

capital and not gains

Finds documents in which a search word or phrase is to be excluded

w/n, near/n, /n

vicious w/3 dog

Finds documents in which the first word appears within "n" words of the second one

pre/n, onear/n

overtime pre/3 compensation

Finds documents in which the first word precedes the second by not more than "n" words

w/para

retirement w/para benefit

Finds documents with search words that appear within the same paragraph, or within approximately 50 words of each other

w/sent

earnings w/sent taxation

Finds documents with search words that appear within the same sentence, or within approximately 15 words of each other

w/seg

unreported w/seg income

Finds documents in which your search terms appear in the same segment (headline, body, etc.), or within approximately 100 words of each other

!, *

employ!

Finds a root word plus all the words made by adding letters to the end of it

?

wom?n

Finds variations of a word by replacing characters anywhere in the word, except the first character