System And Method For Identifying Relevant Search Results Via An Index

A system and method for identifying relevant search results via an index is provided. A search query is received. A semantic representation of query substructures and a list of key terms is generated for the query. Each key term includes a term in the search query or a term related to the query. An inverted index having key terms each associated with a semantic representation and a link to a source reference is accessed. The inverted index is queried using a subset of key terms. A result set for the subset key terms is identified within the inverted index. Each result is scored and a subset of the result set is identified as retrieval candidates based on the scoring. One or more of the retrieval candidates are selected based on a comparison of the query semantic representation with the semantic representations for the retrieval candidates.