# Synonyms and Fuzziness conflict **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [June 22, 2017, 1:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376 "2017-06-22T01:53:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guilherme\_maranhao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/guilherme_maranhao/32/101483_2.png) [@guilherme\_maranhao](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guilherme_maranhao)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2017, 1:53am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/1 "2017-06-22T01:53:14Z")
Hi, I have an analyzer which contains a synonym filter: ``` analysis: { analyzer: { synonym_brazilian_analyzer: { tokenizer: "standard", filter: [ "lowercase", "asciifolding", "my_synonyms", "brazilian_stop" ] } }, filter: { brazilian_stop: { type: "stop", stopwords: "_brazilian_" }, my_synonyms: { type: "synonym", synonyms_path: "path/synonyms.txt" } } } ``` My path/synonyms.txt contains: ``` shirt, blouse ``` My query is ``` query: { multi_match: { fields: %w(name^3 tags_names^2), query: term, fuzziness: "AUTO" } } ``` I have documents which contain the word 'shirt' in the tags\_names field and others documents, the word 'shirts' in the same field. If I search for 'shirts', because of the 'fuzziness' setting, both documents containing 'shirt' and 'shirts' are retrieved. However, if I search for 'shirt', only the documents with 'shirt' are returned. Removing the ``` shirt, blouse ``` from my synonym setting file, both queries return the same documents. Why does it happen when I search for a word which is described in my synonym setting file? Doesn't elasticsearch allow fuzzy searches on words declared in a synonym file? How do I deal with that? Can't I use them (fuzziness and synonym) simultaneously when I am searching for a term defined in the synonym file? Thanks, Guilherme ---
**Author:** ![thiago](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/thiago/32/32096_2.png) [@thiago](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/thiago)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2017, 3:37pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/2 "2017-07-16T15:37:35Z")
Hello Guilherme, The problem is not really related to fuzzyness. You can verify this by doing a test with [Fuzzy Query](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/query-dsl-fuzzy-query.html) and you will see that you can not reproduce this. The issue here is related to Multi Match Query. It seems that when it finds a mapped synonym it completely disregards the fuzzyness. You can verify this using the [Validate API](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/search-validate.html) with the `rewrite` option. For instance: ```auto GET /_validate/query?rewrite=true { "query": { "multi_match" : { "query": "shirts", "fields": ["names^3", "tags_names^2"], "fuzziness": "AUTO" } } } ``` Do this with `shirts` and `shirt`. You will see that while the former will be rewritten using fuzzyness, the latter will actually use synonym without any fuzzyness. TBH, I don't know why this happens (could be a bug?). Maybe @Adrien_Grand has more to tell? Cheers ---
**Author:** ![jpountz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jpountz/32/45836_2.png) [@jpountz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpountz)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/3 "2017-07-17T12:13:41Z")
Might be related to [https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/25518](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/25518)? ---
**Author:** ![thiago](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/thiago/32/32096_2.png) [@thiago](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/thiago)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 12:17pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/4 "2017-07-17T12:17:37Z")
@jpountz I don't think it's the case here since I could _not_ reproduce the behavior using a simple fuzzy query. Fuzzyness was only broken by synonym when doing a multi match ---
**Author:** ![jpountz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/jpountz/32/45836_2.png) [@jpountz](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/jpountz)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 1:24pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/5 "2017-07-17T13:24:37Z")
Right, because the fuzzy query discards analysis, it is not aware of the configured synonyms. ---
**Author:** ![guilherme\_maranhao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/guilherme_maranhao/32/101483_2.png) [@guilherme\_maranhao](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/guilherme_maranhao)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/6 "2017-07-17T14:02:09Z")
Thank you, everybody. As it seems to be an opened issue ([https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/25518](https://github.com/elastic/elasticsearch/issues/25518)), for now, I'll remove the fuzzy query from my search and use only the synonym filter, as it's more important for me. Thank you again, Guilherme ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/synonyms-and-fuzziness-conflict/90376/7 "2017-08-14T14:02:14Z")
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