In a keyword search, what are stop words?

• A. Stop words that are ignored unless quoted
• B. Terms always indexed regardless
• C. Punctuation rules
• D. Case sensitivity settings

Answer: (A)

Stop words are common words that carry little meaning on their own in search queries, so keyword search systems usually skip them during indexing and querying to keep results relevant and the index smaller. Examples include words like the, and, is, to, of, in. They are ignored unless you enclose the phrase in quotes, in which case the engine looks for that exact sequence, including the stop words, as part of a specific phrase. The other aspects mentioned—punctuation handling and case sensitivity—are separate features and not about stop words.