How to search (partial word) with wildcard in Outlook?

Author Kelly Last modified 2025-04-07

You might have noticed that Outlook’s Instant Search feature does not support wildcards. For example, if you search for *berry to find emails containing strawberry, blueberry, or cranberry, Outlook won't return any results. So, how can you perform a partial word search using wildcards in Outlook? Below are two effective workarounds:

Search for partial words using wildcards within a single email

Search for partial words in all emails within a mail folder

Search for partial words using wildcards within a single email

If you need to search for a partial word using wildcards within an individual email, follow these steps:

1. Open the Mail view, then double-click the email where you want to search using wildcards.

2. Click "Message" > "Find".

3. In the Find and Replace dialog box, click the "More" button to expand search options.

4. Check the "Use wildcards" option, enter the search term with a wildcard in the "Find what" box, then click "Reading Highlight" > "Highlight All".

📌 Result: Outlook will now highlight all occurrences matching the wildcard keyword in the email body.

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Search for partial words in all emails within a mail folder

Since wildcard search is not natively supported in Instant Search, you can use "Advanced Find" to locate emails containing partial keywords.

1. Open the Mail view, then navigate to the folder where you want to perform the search.

2. Open the "Advanced Find" dialog box by placing the cursor in the Instant Search box and clicking "Search" > "Search Tools" > "Advanced Find".

⚡ Tip: You can also press Ctrl + Shift + F to quickly open the "Advanced Find" dialog box.

3. In the "Advanced Find" dialog box, go to the "Advanced" tab and configure the search criteria:

1). Click "Field" > "All Mail fields" > "Subject", "Message", or any other field as needed.
2). Select "contains" from the "Condition" drop-down list.
3). Enter partial keyword in the "Value" box.
4). Click "Add to List" to apply the search filter.

4. Click the "Find Now" button.

📌 Result: All emails containing the specified partial keyword are now displayed in the "Advanced Find" results list. You can review the search results directly in the "Advanced Find" dialog or double-click an email to open it.