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The Nominatim wiki page links to a page of special phrases that apparently can be used as part of a query. It doesn't clearly explain how to use these phrases. So how would I for example search for JFK airport, or search for an address in a specific county with these special phrases?

asked 21 Jun '11, 13:51

Justin%20Dearing's gravatar image

Justin Dearing
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accept rate: 0%


The phrases are used to search for other tags then the name tag. If you search for "airports in New York" you would get JFK, LaGuardia and Albany because they are airports (amenity=airport) in New York. It is used to better understand search terms and allows you to find e.g. "Hospitals near Central Park, New York" and get results even though none of them have the term "Hospital" in the name.

It also allows for multilingual search.

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answered 21 Jun '11, 17:21

Gnonthgol's gravatar image

Gnonthgol ♦
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accept rate: 16%

So for address lookup input, you enter the values of the phrases freeform, like you do for regular address elements? Is their a methodology outside of the nominatim api where you can query a special phrases more specifically?

(21 Jun '11, 17:42) Justin Dearing

The nominatim special phrases are for better interaction with humens. What you want is probably more in the lines of the Xapi.

(21 Jun '11, 21:20) Gnonthgol ♦

The "special phrases" described on the page you link are meant for manually entering queries (either on the Nominatim main page itself, or on the main OSM page, which also uses Nominatim).

They can be used to find objects of certain types (by searching for certain tags). Without them, you could only search objects by name, which does not allow things like searching for all hospitals or churches in a city.

So how would I for example search for JFK airport, or search for an address in a specific county with these special phrases?

Not at all :-). If you are looking for one specific objects, and you know its name, you don't need special phrases. Just use a normal search, which will automatically search by name.

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answered 22 Jun '11, 11:34

sleske's gravatar image

sleske
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accept rate: 24%

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question asked: 21 Jun '11, 13:51

question was seen: 6,182 times

last updated: 22 Jun '11, 11:34

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum