partial word search possible? appl vs apple

I think https://backdropcms.org/project/porterstemmer does what you want

Alternatively, you could set up your search using Views and the "Combine fields filter":

• Build a Views page, add a path (e.g. my-custom-search) and add the fields you're interested in (e.g. Title, Body, Tags)
• To make the Combine fields filter work with the Tags field, you must provide the name of terms (instead of just IDs):
  • add a relationship to "Content: Tags (field_tags)"
  • add the field "Taxonomy term: Name", using the relationship
• In the section Filter Criteria, add "Global: Combine fields filter".
• Expose the filter to visitors, choose the operator "Contains", and choose your fields to combine for filtering.
• Go to the page, and test the filter / search. It should find partial words.

I use this approach on two sites. It works very well, and it's even quite fast. To complete the search functionality, I've added a block display to the view, more or less configured as the page display.

Thank you @olafski... I just wanted to write a similar answer. However, here's a demo on a live site

https://landwirtschaft.ag/search?combine=apfe

("apfe" also finds "apfel", german word for "apple")

Using Views for search a some other advantages: you can include any filter that Views offers. If you want e.g. only arcticles with have an "a" in the title, or within a certain time rang... simply set a filter:-)