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Search

Live search — try it directly (this is the real search page):

Toolbar above the results​

Buttons above the search results table
  • Saṁvaṭṭo / Vivaṭṭo — yes, the labels are literally Pali ("collapsing" / "unfolding") — expands or collapses the quoted lines in every row at once (same as Shift+Space).
  • Words — switches the table from a list of texts to a list of the matched words instead.
  • Dict (Alt+A) — turns the click-to-look-up popup dictionary on/off.
  • 1/2 columns — toggles quotes between one wide column and Pali + translation side by side.
  • Marks — adds a "read" checkbox column to every row. These marks belong to the current result set (this query + this scope), not to the sutta as a whole — rerun the same search later and you'll see the same marks, but that's a different thing from a sutta's overall reading progress.
  • Help — opens this very page.

Right under the search box, a "variants" link shows up when the word you searched for has alternate spellings elsewhere in the texts.

Basics​

Which languages search covers

Search runs against the Pali root text and against translations — usually several different translators per language (English and Russian by default, langs=en,ru). Which one it checks first depends on the script you type: Cyrillic (e.g. сострадание) searches Russian translations only; Latin script or diacritic Pali (kacchapa, karuṇā) is checked against the Pali text first, and only falls back to non-Russian translations (typically English) if nothing matched there.

Tip #1. You can type Pali in plain Latin letters, no diacritics required (kacchapa) — the special characters (ā ī ū ḍ ḷ ṁ ṇ ṅ ñ ṭ) are available to copy from the RegEx Cheat Sheet below if you want an exact query.

Tip #2. Where to search. By default search covers the 4 Nikāyas (DN, MN, SN, AN) plus part of the Khuddaka Nikāya (Dhammapada, Udāna, Itivuttaka, Suttanipāta, Theragāthā, Therīgāthā). Change this from the Quick Settings panel (the sliders icon next to the search box) — that's also where you turn on the Vinaya and pick which other Khuddaka Nikāya books to include:

Quick Settings panel — choosing where to search

The same panel controls how many lines of context to show before/after a quote ("Quote context") — the same setting as the lb/la parameters in the API.

Tip #3. Too few results? Try the word's stem instead — drop the prefix or the ending.

Tip #4. Lean on Pali — it's the language the oldest Dhamma texts survive in; the Buddha didn't speak English or Russian, and any translation necessarily narrows or shifts meaning.

Tip #5. Pali search results come back in two tables: matching suttas/texts with quotes, and matches grouped by word. Use both. Other languages also build a by-word table, but it can be less reliable there.

Tip #6. Minimum query length is 3 characters; longer, more specific patterns give more precise results.

Tip #7. Pali often has several distinct words where English/Russian collapse to one (several Pali words for "snake", for instance, against one English word) — searching in Pali surfaces distinctions a translation erases.

Tip #8. If a query times out, try a longer or more specific pattern.

Jump straight to a sutta by id

Type a sutta id (SuttaCentral-style, e.g. dn22) instead of a search term and you'll land directly in the reader on that sutta, skipping search entirely. Works for DN, MN, SN, AN, the Khuddaka Nikāya books listed above, and the Vinaya.

The "Mr" column. Counts matches anywhere in the text (regardless of your search term) for the pattern seyyathāpi|adhivacan|ūpama|opama|opamma, ignoring adhivacanasamphass|adhivacanapath|ekarūp|tathārūpa|āmarūpa|\brūpa|evarūpa|\banopam|\battūpa|\bnillopa|opamaññ. Found a case that should be included or excluded? Open an issue on GitHub.

Working with results​

  • Click at the end of a Pali line (cursor turns from an arrow into a hand) — jump into the reader right at that line.
  • ✦ — an invisible link at the start and end of each quoted fragment, to open the reader at exactly that spot.
  • The Search field inside the table does simple filtering of results already shown; the Custom Search Builder at the bottom does more elaborate multi-condition filtering.
  • Export — download the results in a format handy for AI or analysis.
  • The Words button switches the table to results grouped by word instead of by sutta.
  • Below the table, links to a few standalone helper tools: Make List (build a list from arbitrary text), List Diff (compare two lists of links) and Sutta Diff (compare editions of a sutta) — each opens as its own page.
  • Sutta — the text's id (e.g. sn56.11, dn22, an10.46).
  • Title — the text's title.
  • Words — the matched words in the text.
  • Count — number of matches in the text, variants included.
  • Type — 4 Nikāyas (Dīgha/Majjhima/Saṁyutta/Aṅguttara), Khuddaka Nikāya (any KN book), or Vinaya (anything from the Vinaya).
  • Quote — the quote containing the match.
  • Links — Pi (read on Dhamma.Gift Read), En (TheBuddhasWords.net), Ru (Theravada.ru or Theravada.su, when available).

For edition abbreviations (ms, pts1ed, sya-all, mr, etc.), see the Edition Abbreviations page or SuttaCentral's list.

Hotkeys​

KeyAction
Alt+AToggle dictionary (clicking a word triggers DPD)
Alt+SShow/hide settings
Alt+TDark / light / auto theme
Alt+Space, Alt+ZShow/hide Pali or other languages in results
Shift+SpaceCollapse/expand all search results
/Focus the Search Builder input

Advanced​

Tip #1. Only works for Pali or English searches! To find a word within a specific sutta/saṁyutta/nikāya: Sn17.*seyyathāpi returns every simile and metaphor in Sn17. For several patterns within a scope, quote it: "Sn51.*(seyyathāpi|adhivacan|ūpama|opama)".

Tip #2. Use [] for variants: nand[iī] matches both nandi and nandī.

Tip #3. Use \b to anchor a word boundary: \bkummo\b matches only kummo, not kummova or other longer matches.

Tip #4. Full GNU grep -E regex is supported (with proper escaping). An AI can generate a pattern for you — see the RegEx cheat sheet in the search box's settings for links.

Tip #5. Results are rendered with DataTables.

Tip #6. Collections. Quote a pattern to build a custom collection: "sn42.8|sn20.5" returns both full suttas in one table; "Sn20.1" returns Sn20.1, Sn20.10, Sn20.11, etc.; "Sn20.1\b" returns only Sn20.1.

RegEx Cheat Sheet — try it live​

an4.180:1.2  Cattārome, bhikkhave, mahāpadesā.
an4.180:1.3  Katame cattāro?
mn139:3.1   Seyyathāpi, bhikkhave, puriso dukkhena phuṭṭho...
sn12.2:1.1  Katamañca, bhikkhave, jarāmaraṇaṁ?
dn22:18.18  Yaṁ kho, bhikkhave, kāyikaṁ dukkhaṁ...

Demo videos​