Searching Britannica Online for Kids can lead you to a wealth of information. When you enter a keyword or phrase, we search the entire text of the encyclopedias as well as magazine articles, videos, and thousands of Web site reviews written by our world-class editors.
Standard Search:
Type a word or phrase in the search box on the Britannica Online for Kids home page, or at the top of search results.
Click Go to begin the search.
Search results from Student Encyclopedia will display as the default. Click the link to the article when you find one of interest.
Choose a content source from the list on the left to see more results. When you find an image, video, Web site, or magazine article click the link to read more. If you have trouble finding what you want, read the Tips for Better Results below.
Tips for Better Results
Use the following tips to improve your searches and get better results:
Search results are ranked to ensure that the closest match to the word or phrase you searched appears at or near the top of the list. Encyclopedia articles with all your search terms in the title appear first, followed by articles with all the terms in the text of the article. Next are listed articles with any of your search terms in the title, followed by those with any of the terms in the text of the article.
For the best results, enter specific terms or multiple words in the search box. You will find better results for Abraham Lincoln if you enter his full name than if you search for Lincoln.
NOTE: Using Advanced Search can change the ordering of search results.
Use quotation marks around words or phrases if you want them to appear word for word in your search results. For example, if you are interested in the American Civil War and you do not want to see results for other civil wars, type "American Civil War" in the Search Box.
With longer and more complex articles, the search engine also identifies matches to nicknames and alternate titles. You can search on JFK to find articles on John F. Kennedy.
Type your search words in uppercase or lowercase - it doesn't matter. Changing the case of the letters in your query will not affect search results in any way. For example, the word AIDS gives you the same results as the word aids.
You can use either singular or plural words in encyclopedia searches. However, use singular words to search the dictionary/thesaurus.
Many of the articles use British spellings. You can enter either spelling of your search term, for example theater or theatre, and find the same results.
Using abbreviations or acronyms in your query can make a difference in your search results. If you want to use an abbreviation in your search, or to understand an abbreviation in an article, check this abbreviation list.
Punctuation and Special Characters
Quotation Marks
Use quotation marks around words or phrases if you want them to appear
word for word in your search results. See Using Quotation
Marks.
Parentheses
Use parentheses in Boolean operator formulas to separate and group words
or phrases. See Boolean Operators.
Hyphens
Use hyphens or spaces when searching for hyphenated words and names. Both
will return the same results.
Apostrophes
Use apostrophes in your search term, except when the apostrophe indicates
possession. For example, if you looking for the article on the Chinese
deity, you will find better results if you search for T'ien rather
than T ien. You don't need to use 's in your search term
for possessives. A search for Steno's law or Stenos law
will return the same results.
Special Characters
Many articles use diacritical marks and special characters that are difficult
to enter in a search term. You can search without these characters to
still find the matching results. For example, a search on francois
will return articles that match françois.
You can use Advanced Search to construct complex queries that correspond to Boolean operator, including AND, OR, and NOT. You can also simply enter the operators as part of a query in any search box on the site.
AND: Use the AND operator (it must be in all capital letters) or + to specify that you want all of your search words to appear in the results. German AND shepherd
OR: Use the OR operator (it must be in all capital letters) to receive search results that contain any one or all of the words in your multiple word query. Yugoslavia OR Bosnia
NOT: Use the NOT operator (it must be in all capital letters) or - to exclude words from your search results. Washington NOT George
You can use these three Boolean operators in any combination by breaking your query into a formula using parentheses.
EXAMPLE: cherokee AND (language or alphabet) NOT sequoyah
This search finds results about the Cherokee language or alphabet, but
not Sequoyah.