Why is my compound word synonym not matching as expected?

Your query is decompounded

A synonym may not work as expected if the query is decompounded.

For some languages, the engine will decompound (split) compound words. Synonyms however are not decompounded meaning if you search the decompounded version of a compound word, the synonyms will not be triggered.

For example, if you have a synonym kleingeld <-> münzen and search for klein geld, the synonym won’t apply.

Synonym creates a conflict

If you have a synonym that combines a compound word, the two word decompounded phrase and one of the individual words, this will create a conflict and can lead to unexpected results. You should therefore remove any single word synonym from the set that is being contained in the compound word.

For example

 "soccerball" <=> "soccer ball" <=> "soccer".

In this example, you should remove the word soccer from the synonym.

If the single word is needed, you can consider,

• One-way synonyms

• Replace Word rules (Why are Synonyms not working properly with multi-word synonym matching? )

• Keyword attributes as an alternative to synonyms (Synonyms - Algolia )

• Using a Query with contains instead of is rule

For a full list of common synonym issues, troubleshooting topics and best practices, see our summary article here.