Query expansion

Imagine you have a toy box with all your favorite toys in it, but sometimes you can't find the toy you want to play with. So, you ask your mom or dad to help you look for it by giving them a general idea of what the toy looks like or its name. That is kind of like a query, which is a question or request for information.

Query expansion happens when you want to find information about something, but your original query doesn't give you enough results or the results aren't quite what you were looking for. Similar to asking your parent for help finding a toy, query expansion means that you ask the computer to look for more information related to your original query, but with different words or concepts.

For example, let's say you want to find information about the animal "elephant." You might start by typing "elephant" into a search engine, but what if you don't find what you're looking for? You could use query expansion by typing related words or concepts such as "elephant habits," "elephant food," or "elephant behavior" which could turn up more relevant results.

Query expansion helps the computer find more and better information for you to explore, just like how your parent helps you find toys by suggesting different search words. It helps you learn more and find what you need by giving the computer more options for what to look for.