# Fuzzy query exclude exact match

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-exclude-exact-match/123289>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Created:** [March 9, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-exclude-exact-match/123289 "2018-03-09T15:05:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![acastellano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@acastellano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/acastellano)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 3:05pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-exclude-exact-match/123289/1 "2018-03-09T15:05:12Z")

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Is there any way to express the 'fuzziness' parameter in terms of a range that excludes exact matches or fuzziness = 0 hits? Basically just a return on fuzzy matches of edit distances 1 and 2?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mark\_Harwood](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/mark_harwood/32/10538_2.png) [@Mark\_Harwood](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Mark_Harwood)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-exclude-exact-match/123289/2 "2018-03-09T15:13:07Z")

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Use a `bool` query where a fuzzy match is a `must` but an exact match is a `must_not` ?

```
GET news/_search
{
  "query": {
	"bool": {
	  "must": [
		{
		  "match": {
			"headline": {
			  "query": "accommodation",
			  "fuzziness": 2
			}
		  }
		}
	  ],
	  "must_not": [
		{
		  "match": {
			"headline": {
			  "query": "accommodation"
			}
		  }
		}
	  ]
	}
  }
}
```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![acastellano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@acastellano](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/acastellano)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2018, 3:46pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-exclude-exact-match/123289/3 "2018-03-09T15:46:54Z")

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Just what I needed - thank you Mark!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 3:47pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/fuzzy-query-exclude-exact-match/123289/4 "2018-04-06T15:47:06Z")

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