If you want to search for something on Google, but aren’t sure what words to use, a partial search can be helpful. Knowing how to perform an incomplete search like this can be useful for effectively narrowing down your results.

Normally, when you Google something, you know exactly what to type. But what if you’re looking up a name, for example, but you only know part of it? Or maybe it’s a movie, or a location, or something else that has multiple parts of the term, but you’re not sure what one or more of those parts are.

This is where a partial search comes in handy. Below are several ways to search Google if you’re missing a key word or two.

Google allows you to search using wildcards, which essentially means you can perform a search using missing words. This is by far the most effective way to find phrases when you don’t have all the information.