Simple search

Aim: to search for the term mail man

1. Type mail man into the Find Word box.

   It is not necessary to type punctuation or worry about capital letters or hyphens. You could also type MAILMAN, MAIL MAN, MAIL-MAN, MailMan, mail-man, Mailman, etc. For more information on typing special characters, see Special characters, hyphens, and case.

2. Click to start the search.

3. The results list is displayed.

4. Move to the match found in the entry mail n.³, sense 4.a by clicking on the underlined match in the second result line.

   You will see that the compound is actually represented in the text by the second half of the hyphenated compound -man. It is common for undefined compounds to be listed in this way in the OED: a Find Word search automatically takes the ‘hidden’ part of such compounds into account.