# What is the difference between analyzer and search analyzer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Elasticsearch\ **Created:** [October 19, 2018, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-difference-between-analyzer-and-search-analyzer/153141 "2018-10-19T08:22:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newnewb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@newnewb](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/newnewb)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2018, 8:22am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-difference-between-analyzer-and-search-analyzer/153141/1 "2018-10-19T08:22:28Z")
From what I've been reading, index\_analyzer should analyze during indexing, and search\_analyzer when querying. But I still can't wrap my head around this completely, it sounds pretty simple and straightforward, but when and where would we use this? Does anyone have an example to make this a bit clearer? ---
**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:** [October 19, 2018, 8:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-difference-between-analyzer-and-search-analyzer/153141/2 "2018-10-19T08:38:20Z")
> [@newnewb](#): > > when and where would we use this? Synonyms. You either decide to expand "doggy" to also use "dog" at index time for docs or search time for queries. No need to do both. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2018, 8:38am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/what-is-the-difference-between-analyzer-and-search-analyzer/153141/3 "2018-11-16T08:38:22Z")
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