---
title: ES|QL Search functions
description: Use these functions for full-text search and semantic search. Full text functions can be used to match multivalued fields. A multivalued field that contains...
url: https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions
products:
  - Elasticsearch
applies_to:
  - Elastic Cloud Serverless: Generally available
  - Elastic Stack: Generally available
---

# ES|QL Search functions
<tip>
  Get started with ES|QL for search use cases with
  our [hands-on tutorial](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/esql-search-tutorial).For a high-level overview of search functionalities in ES|QL, and to learn about relevance scoring, refer to [ES|QL for search](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/search/esql-for-search#esql-for-search-scoring).For information regarding dense vector search functions,
  including [KNN](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/dense-vector-functions/knn), please refer to
  the [Dense vector functions](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/dense-vector-functions) documentation.
</tip>

Use these functions for [full-text search](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/search/full-text)
and [semantic search](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/solutions/search/semantic-search/semantic-search-semantic-text).
Full text functions can be used to
match [multivalued fields](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/esql-multivalued-fields).
A multivalued field that contains a value that matches a full text query is
considered to match the query.
Full text functions are significantly more performant for text search use cases
on large data sets than using pattern matching or regular expressions with
`LIKE` or `RLIKE`.
See [full text search limitations](/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/limitations#esql-limitations-full-text-search)
for information on the limitations of full text search.
ES|QL supports these full-text search functions:
- [`DECAY`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/decay) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.3</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview</applies-to>
- [`KQL`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/kql) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.0</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1</applies-to>
- [`MATCH`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/match) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.0</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1</applies-to>
- [`MATCH_PHRASE`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/match_phrase) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1</applies-to>
- [`QSTR`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/qstr) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.0</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Generally available since 9.1</applies-to>
- [`SCORE`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/score) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.3</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview</applies-to>

- [`TOP_SNIPPETS`](https://www.elastic.co/elastic/docs-builder/docs/3028/reference/query-languages/esql/functions-operators/search-functions/top-snippets) <applies-to>Elastic Stack: Preview since 9.3</applies-to> <applies-to>Elastic Cloud Serverless: Preview</applies-to>