Syntax	Meaning	Examples (Click to run)	Sample matches
One "slot" : Make sure there is no space, or it will be interpreted as two consecutive words
word	One exact word	mysterious	mysterious
(See notes on words with apostrophes, e.g. doesn't, won't, they've, we're, that's)
[lemma]	Lemmas (all forms of a word)	[sing] [tall]	sing, singing, sang tall, taller, tallest
xx x?xx x?xx	Wildcard: * = any # letters Wildcard: ? = one letter	unly s?ng s?ng	unlikely, unusually sing, sang, song song, singer, songbirds
word\|word	Any of these words	stunning\|gorgeous\|charming	stunning, charming, gorgeous
[=word]	Synonyms [More information]	[=strong]	formidible, muscular, fervent
[pos*]	Part of speech [More information]	were [vvg] several people [v]	were going, using several people were, will, waiting
-word	NOT (followed by PoS, lemma, word, etc. Most useful for "multiple slot" queries; see below)	pretty -[nn*]	pretty sure, pretty and But not: pretty girls, pretty dress
Combination of preceding
You can limit to a particular part of speech by adding a period (full stop) and then the part of speech tag in brackets. This is always optional. Make sure there is no space before or after the period (full stop), or it will be interpreted as two consecutive words. Note that there is currently only one option (wildcard for word form + part of speech). There are other possibilities for the other corpora, which may be added to the Google Books corpus in the future.
word*.[pos]	Substring and part of speech	dis.[v]	disappear, discovering, disapproved
		ly.[r]	usually, nearly, finally
Wildcard "slots" : Just use an asterisk (*) as placeholder "slots" in the query.
a * nice person			a genuinely nice person a real nice person
ask * to *			ask you to do ask Bill to somehow
Multiple "slots" : Create sequences of words, using any of the preceding query types. Note that in each case, there is a space between the word "slots" in the query. These are just a few examples, from an unlimited number of combinations.
nook and cranny			nook and cranny
nook* and crann*			nook and cranny nooks and crannies
fast\|quick\|rapid [nn*]			fast offerings rapid growth
pretty -[nn*]			pretty sure pretty and (but not pretty girl, pretty dress, etc)
[ask] him\|them to [v*]			ask him to bless asked them to come
[break] the [nn*]			break the laws broke the bands
truly\|very [=gorgeous] [nn*]			really beautiful woman truly magnificent scale
some * [=gorgeous] [nn*]			some really beautiful things some rather beautiful paintings
[=walk] ly.[r] to\|towards			march quickly towards paced nervously to