The search engine also supports special characters and parameters to extend the power of searches and allow users to make their search strings more specific. At the search results page, Special:Search, Advanced dialog, a search can specify any number of namespaces, and logged-in users can set their default search domain there by clicking "Remember selection for future searches". This section is about search parameters. Parameters function as name filters, each followed by the search term it operates on. The search box will navigate directly to a given page name upon an exact match. The search results highlight occurrences in both the title and page content. The search results page can open in a new tab. You can just drag items on the page the name up to the web browser search box while on any web site, even in the lower sections of a Wikipedia page, where no search box is immediately available.

Unlike with some other keywords, the page name is case-sensitive. Pressing ↵ Enter or clicking on the magnifying glass when the box is empty takes you directly to Wikipedia's search page. Search "folds" character families, matching similar-looking letters across alphabets, to match foreign terms. You can try various things depending upon the particular case; for "Bordo" wine, it's quite likely that the first letters are "bord", so search an article you've landed on for these letters. The main difference between this search box and the one that appears on article pages is that exact matches on this one will not navigate you directly to an article page. If your search matches a page name the search box may navigate instead of search. In order to fully interpret the search results page, check which search domains are checked off, but also remember to check for a namespace name at the beginning or a prefix: parameter at the end of the search box query. A non-match, or any other type of search string will take you to Wikipedia's search results page, where the results of your search are displayed.

Throughout the results, matching terms are highlighted in bold. If you use Google to search Wikipedia, and click on "cache" at the bottom of any result in the search engine results page, IT eBooks for Kindle you'll see the word(s) that you searched for highlighted in context. Due to the way the wikimedia database is indexed, there's no direct way to search for something like insource:foo author:person. The entire wikipedia database (with some redactions for privacy) is exposed for SQL queries at the experimental Quarry service. Using this requires a high degree of technical skill; you must not only know SQL, but also be able to navigate the complex (and not always well documented) database schema. For this reason prefix: must only ever be given as the last part of a search box query, and next character after the colon cannot be a space. While the entire contents of the search page is included in the search results page, it is a distinct page.

Search every page on the entire wiki, for example also drafts and user pages. Spell-correct titles dropped-down from the search box as you type, or not. For example, you can go straight to a Wiktionary entry by using the prefix wikt: from your web-search box. Whatever you type into the search box is called the "search string". All filters can have grey-space between them without affecting search results. It always takes you to the search results page, never jumping to a single title. Prefix is the most widely used and powerful filter as it can mimic the namespace filter, and because intitle: cannot easily target a single page, even together with other filters. A single namespace: filter can go first, and a single prefix: filter can go last. However, search can instantly search all 61,606,395 pages on the wiki when the search is kept to a simple word or two. It covers any two character-changes for any character except the first: it returns addition, exchange, or subtraction. Search the Help: namespace and Wikipedia: namespace (also called project namespace). This search technique is sometimes called a "sounds-like" search. Only search encyclopedia articles (also called mainspace).