How Do I Search in Logos?

Note: This feature is available to all users.

Skip ahead to:

• Search Tool: Basic & General Searches 
  • All Search
  • Bible Search
  • Books Search
  • Factbook Search
  • Docs Search
  • Media Search
  • Other Search Types
  • Common Search Syntax/Operators (Used in Precise Mode)
• Specialized Linguistic & Data Searches
  • Morph Search
  • Syntax Search
  • Clause Search
• Context-Driven & Guided Searches
  • Context Menu 
  • Selection Menu
  • Guides 
  • Inline Search

Search Tool: Basic & General Searches 

The primary way to initiate a search in Logos is through the Search Tool, which you can open by clicking the Search Tool icon in the main toolbar. From this panel, you can select different types of searches.

All Search

• Purpose: This is the broadest search. It searches across your entire Logos library for your query.
• Modes:
  • Smart Mode (AI-powered, subscription feature): Allows for natural language queries (e.g., "Where does Jesus talk about the kingdom of God?"). Logos returns the most relevant results using AI. Learn more about Smart Search here. 
  • Precise Mode (Standard): Requires more specific syntax (e.g., Jesus AND "kingdom of God"). It searches for exact words and phrases, and can use operators. See this section to learn a little about search operators.
• Scope: Finds results in Bibles, books, Factbook entries, datasets, media, documents, and more.
• Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail
• Learn more about All Search here.

Bible Search

• Purpose: Specifically searches the text of your Bibles.
• Modes: Also offers Smart Search for natural language searches and Precise Search for exact word/phrase searches.
• Scope: Primarily the main biblical text. It typically does not search footnotes, introductory material, or headings within the Bible itself (unless specified with advanced syntax).
• Filtering: You can select specific Bible versions to search within, or search your preferred Bible(s).
• Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail
• Learn more about Bible Search here. 

Books Search

• Purpose: Searches all non-Bible books in your Logos library (e.g., commentaries, dictionaries, theological works, journals).
• Modes: Smart Search and Precise Search.
• Scope: The content of your scholarly resources.
• Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail
• Learn more about Books Search here. 

Factbook Search

• Purpose: Searches entries within the Factbook Tool, which provides curated information on people, places, events, and topics.
• Learn more about the Factbook here. 

Docs Search

• Purpose: Searches your personal documents created within Logos (Notes, Sermons, Custom Documents, Passage Lists, Word Lists, etc.).
• Learn more about Documents here.

Media Search

• Purpose: Finds images, videos, audio, and other media elements within your Logos library and from online sources.
• Learn more about the Media Search here. 

Other Search Types

The Search Tool also features Morph Search, Maps Search, Factbook Tags Search, Bookstore Search, Clause Search, and Syntax Search.  

Common Search Syntax/Operators (Used in Precise Mode)

• Single Words: love
• Phrases: "kingdom of God" (use double quotes)
• Wildcards:
  • * (asterisk): Represents zero or more characters (e.g., love* finds love, loved, lover, lovely).
  • ? (question mark): Represents exactly one character (e.g., gr?ce finds grace).
• Boolean Operators (must be capitalized):
  • AND: Finds results containing all terms (e.g., faith AND hope). Implicit if no operator is given between words (e.g., love neighbor is love AND neighbor).
  • OR: Finds results containing any of the terms (e.g., grace OR truth).
  • NOT: Finds results containing the first term but not the second (e.g., love NOT hate).
• Proximity Operators:
  • NEAR: Finds terms close to each other (e.g., law NEAR prophets).
  • WITHIN: Finds terms within a certain number of words (or characters) (e.g. love WITHIN 5 WORDS God; love WITHIN 5 CHARS God).
  • BEFORE/AFTER: Finds terms in a specific order (e.g., prophets BEFORE law).
• Parentheses (): Group terms to control evaluation order (e.g., love AND (neighbor OR neighbour)).
• Fields/Labels (e.g., speaker:Jesus, topic:Sabbath): Allows you to search for specific data points or metadata associated with text.
• Ranges: You can limit any search to a specific biblical range (e.g., John 3:16-17, Matthew 5, Pauline Epistles).

Learn more about using search operators for Precise Searches here. 

Specialized Linguistic & Data Searches

These search types require specific Logos resources (like original language texts with morphological tagging or syntax databases) and allow for highly granular linguistic analysis.

Morph Search

• Purpose: Searches morphologically tagged texts (primarily Greek New Testaments, Hebrew Bibles, Septuagint) for grammatical features of words.
• Capabilities: You can search for specific lemmas (dictionary forms), inflected forms, parts of speech (e.g., verb, noun), specific grammatical cases (e.g., nominative), tenses (e.g., aorist), moods (e.g., imperative), etc.
• Example: Find all instances of a specific Greek verb that is in the aorist, indicative, passive voice.
• Syntax: Often uses @ symbol for morphology (e.g., love@NN for noun, or g:agape@N-NSF for Greek word agape, noun, nominative, singular, feminine).
• Learn more about Morph Search here.

Syntax Search

• Purpose: Searches syntax databases that analyze the grammatical relationships between words and phrases in original language texts.
• Capabilities: Allows you to search for complex grammatical constructions, such as a verb with a specific subject, a direct object, or a particular type of clause.
• Example: Find every instance where "God" is the subject of an "action" verb.
• Visual Query Builder: Logos often provides a visual interface (Query Builder) to construct these complex searches without needing to know all the intricate syntax.
• Learn more about Syntax Search here (Greek) or here (Hebrew). 

Clause Search

• Purpose: A more advanced linguistic search that allows you to search for terms acting in specific grammatical or semantic roles within sentences or clauses. Requires higher-tier Logos packages.
• Learn more about Clause Search here. 

Context-Driven & Guided Searches

These methods initiate searches based on what you're currently viewing or by guiding you through a structured research process.

Context Menu

•  
  • Purpose: Quick, ad-hoc searching.
  • How it works: Right-click any word or selection in a book. A context menu appears with various search options.
  • Benefits: Extremely fast for exploring words or concepts on the fly.
  • Learn more about the Context Menu here. 

Selection Menu

•  
  • Purpose: Similar to the context menu, a small pop-up menu appears when you select a word or phrase, offering quick actions including various search types.
  • Learn more about the Selection Menu here. 

Guides 

•  
  • Purpose: These tools conduct complex, pre-defined searches across your library and organize the results into a comprehensive report based on a specific passage, topic, or word.
  • How it works: You enter a passage (e.g., John 3:16) or a topic (e.g., "grace") or a word (e.g., "love") into the Guide, and Logos automatically searches for related commentaries, cross-references, biblical people/places/events, sermons, media, and more.
  • Benefits: Automates complex research, providing a structured overview of relevant books.
  • Learn more about Guides here. 

Inline Search

•  
  • Purpose: To search within the currently open book only.
  • How it works: Select the Search tab in a book's Dynamic Toolbar. For finding a specific line of text, pressing the standard find shortcut (Ctrl+F in Windows or Cmd+F in MacOS) opens a small search bar within the book.
  • Benefits: Great for quickly finding text within a long commentary or a specific Bible chapter.
  • Learn more about Inline Search here. 

Skip ahead to:

• Search Tool: Basic & General Searches 
  • All Search
  • Bible Search
  • Books Search
  • Factbook Search
  • Common Search Syntax/Operators (Used in Precise Mode)
• Context-Driven & Guided Searches
  • Insights Panel
  • Guides 
  • Inline Search

Search Tool: Basic & General Searches

The primary way to initiate a search in Logos is through the Search Tool. 

To open it, tap the More Items Menu at the bottom of your screen and then select Search.

A number of search options are available, you can see these by tapping the currently selected search type.

All Search

This is the broadest search. It searches across your entire Logos library for your query.

• Modes:
  • Smart Mode (AI-powered, subscription feature): Allows for natural language queries (e.g., "Where does Jesus talk about the kingdom of God?"). Logos returns the most relevant results using AI. Learn more about Smart Search here. 
  • Precise Mode (Standard): Requires more specific syntax (e.g., Jesus AND "kingdom of God"). It searches for exact words and phrases, and can use operators. See this section to learn a little about search operators.
• Scope: Finds results in Bibles, books, Factbook entries, datasets, media, documents, and more.
• Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail

Learn more about All Search here.

Bible Search

Specifically searches the text of your Bibles.

• Modes: Also offers Smart Search for natural language searches and Precise Search for exact word/phrase searches.
• Scope: Primarily the main biblical text. It typically does not search footnotes, introductory material, or headings within the Bible itself (unless specified with advanced syntax).
• Filtering: You can select specific Bible versions to search within, or search your preferred Bible(s).
• Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail

Learn more about Bible Search here. 

Books Search

Searches all non-Bible books in your Logos library (e.g., commentaries, dictionaries, theological works, journals).

• Modes: Smart Search and Precise Search.
• Scope: The content of your scholarly resources.
• Integration with Study Assistant: You can invoke the Study Assistant from the Smart Search Synopsis to explore specific aspects in more detail

Learn more about Books Search here. 

Factbook Search

Searches entries within the Factbook Tool, which provides curated information on people, places, events, and topics.

Learn more about the Factbook here.

Common Search Syntax/Operators (Used in Precise Mode)

• Single Words: love
• Phrases: "kingdom of God" (use double quotes)
• Wildcards:
  • * (asterisk): Represents zero or more characters (e.g., love* finds love, loved, lover, lovely).
  • ? (question mark): Represents exactly one character (e.g., gr?ce finds grace).
• Boolean Operators (must be capitalized):
  • AND: Finds results containing all terms (e.g., faith AND hope). Implicit if no operator is given between words (e.g., love neighbor is love AND neighbor).
  • OR: Finds results containing any of the terms (e.g., grace OR truth).
  • NOT: Finds results containing the first term but not the second (e.g., love NOT hate).
• Proximity Operators:
  • NEAR: Finds terms close to each other (e.g., law NEAR prophets).
  • WITHIN: Finds terms within a certain number of words (or characters) (e.g. love WITHIN 5 WORDS God; love WITHIN 5 CHARS God).
  • BEFORE/AFTER: Finds terms in a specific order (e.g., prophets BEFORE law).
• Parentheses (): Group terms to control evaluation order (e.g., love AND (neighbor OR neighbour)).
• Fields/Labels (e.g., speaker:Jesus, topic:Sabbath): Allows you to search for specific data points or metadata associated with text.
• Ranges: You can limit any search to a specific biblical range (e.g., John 3:16-17, Matthew 5, Pauline Epistles).

Learn more about using search operators for Precise Searches here. 

Context-Driven & Guided Searches

Insights Panel

You can run a search on a word in a text you are reading using the search option in the Insights panel.

To open the Insights Panel, tap and hold a specific word or tap and drag over a phrase. Then tap Search to open the search tool preloaded with the term or phrase you’ve selected, or tap Search Inline to see where else that word or phrase shows up in this specific book

Note: If you are searching for a biblical word, using the Search Tool from the Insights Panel will show results that correspond to the English word used, not the original language.

Guides

To access these, tap the More Items Menu at the bottom of your screen and then select the Guide you want.

These tools conduct complex, pre-defined searches across your library and organize the results into a comprehensive report based on a specific passage, topic, or word.

• How it works: You enter a passage (e.g., John 3:16) or a topic (e.g., "grace") or a word (e.g., "love") into the Guide, and Logos automatically searches for related commentaries, cross-references, biblical people/places/events, sermons, media, and more.
• Benefits: Automates complex research, providing a structured overview of relevant books.

Learn more about Guides here. 

Inline Search

You can also access search functionality by tapping the Search icon at the top of an open book. This will open a search panel, pre-populated with the current verse.

Once you enter a search term, you will see a number of search options including:

1. Searching for items in your Favorites that match the search term, if applicable
2. Performing a range of searches on the search term, including Smart Search (as a Smart Inline Search or in All Search mode)
3. Looking up relevant Factbook articles