diff --git a/milli/src/search/criteria/attribute.rs b/milli/src/search/criteria/attribute.rs
index 7e55a1038..679381838 100644
--- a/milli/src/search/criteria/attribute.rs
+++ b/milli/src/search/criteria/attribute.rs
@@ -579,6 +579,7 @@ fn flatten_query_tree(query_tree: &Operation) -> FlattenedQueryTree {
             Phrase(words) => {
                 let queries = words
                     .iter()
+                    .filter_map(|w| w.as_ref())
                     .map(|word| vec![Query { prefix: false, kind: QueryKind::exact(word.clone()) }])
                     .collect();
                 vec![queries]
diff --git a/milli/src/search/criteria/exactness.rs b/milli/src/search/criteria/exactness.rs
index d5b2ff0ee..0f0c24723 100644
--- a/milli/src/search/criteria/exactness.rs
+++ b/milli/src/search/criteria/exactness.rs
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ fn attribute_start_with_docids(
                 pos += 1;
             }
             Phrase(phrase) => {
-                for word in phrase {
+                for word in phrase.iter().filter_map(|w| w.as_ref()) {
                     let wc = ctx.word_position_docids(word, pos)?;
                     if let Some(word_candidates) = wc {
                         attribute_candidates_array.push(word_candidates);
@@ -323,7 +323,7 @@ fn intersection_of(mut rbs: Vec<&RoaringBitmap>) -> RoaringBitmap {
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub enum ExactQueryPart {
-    Phrase(Vec<String>),
+    Phrase(Vec<Option<String>>),
     Synonyms(Vec<String>),
 }
 
diff --git a/milli/src/search/criteria/mod.rs b/milli/src/search/criteria/mod.rs
index 1b46c8441..96ed0bf6c 100644
--- a/milli/src/search/criteria/mod.rs
+++ b/milli/src/search/criteria/mod.rs
@@ -418,15 +418,21 @@ pub fn resolve_query_tree(
     resolve_operation(ctx, query_tree, wdcache)
 }
 
-pub fn resolve_phrase(ctx: &dyn Context, phrase: &[String]) -> Result<RoaringBitmap> {
+pub fn resolve_phrase(ctx: &dyn Context, phrase: &[Option<String>]) -> Result<RoaringBitmap> {
     let mut candidates = RoaringBitmap::new();
     let mut first_iter = true;
     let winsize = phrase.len().min(3);
     for win in phrase.windows(winsize) {
         // Get all the documents with the matching distance for each word pairs.
         let mut bitmaps = Vec::with_capacity(winsize.pow(2));
-        for (offset, s1) in win.iter().enumerate() {
-            for (dist, s2) in win.iter().skip(offset + 1).enumerate() {
+        for (offset, s1) in win.iter().filter_map(|w| w.as_ref()).enumerate() {
+            for (dist, s2) in win.iter().skip(offset + 1).enumerate().filter_map(|(index, word)| {
+                if let Some(word) = word {
+                    Some((index, word))
+                } else {
+                    None
+                }
+            }) {
                 if dist == 0 {
                     match ctx.word_pair_proximity_docids(s1, s2, 1)? {
                         Some(m) => bitmaps.push(m),
diff --git a/milli/src/search/criteria/proximity.rs b/milli/src/search/criteria/proximity.rs
index b7c10a2e0..db8592a1d 100644
--- a/milli/src/search/criteria/proximity.rs
+++ b/milli/src/search/criteria/proximity.rs
@@ -188,9 +188,13 @@ fn resolve_candidates<'t>(
                 if proximity == 0 {
                     let most_left = words
                         .first()
+                        .map(|o| o.as_ref())
+                        .flatten()
                         .map(|w| Query { prefix: false, kind: QueryKind::exact(w.clone()) });
                     let most_right = words
                         .last()
+                        .map(|o| o.as_ref())
+                        .flatten()
                         .map(|w| Query { prefix: false, kind: QueryKind::exact(w.clone()) });
 
                     match (most_left, most_right) {
@@ -473,7 +477,7 @@ fn resolve_plane_sweep_candidates(
             }
             Phrase(words) => {
                 let mut groups_positions = Vec::with_capacity(words.len());
-                for word in words {
+                for word in words.iter().filter_map(|w| w.as_ref()) {
                     let positions = match words_positions.get(word) {
                         Some(positions) => positions.iter().map(|p| (p, 0, p)).collect(),
                         None => return Ok(vec![]),
diff --git a/milli/src/search/criteria/typo.rs b/milli/src/search/criteria/typo.rs
index 76bd04d20..758069642 100644
--- a/milli/src/search/criteria/typo.rs
+++ b/milli/src/search/criteria/typo.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ use std::borrow::Cow;
 use std::collections::HashMap;
 use std::mem::take;
 
+use itertools::Itertools;
 use log::debug;
 use roaring::RoaringBitmap;
 
@@ -259,8 +260,7 @@ fn resolve_candidates<'t>(
             Phrase(words) => {
                 let mut candidates = RoaringBitmap::new();
                 let mut first_loop = true;
-                for slice in words.windows(2) {
-                    let (left, right) = (&slice[0], &slice[1]);
+                for (left, right) in words.iter().filter_map(|w| w.as_ref()).tuple_windows() {
                     match ctx.word_pair_proximity_docids(left, right, 1)? {
                         Some(pair_docids) => {
                             if pair_docids.is_empty() {
diff --git a/milli/src/search/query_tree.rs b/milli/src/search/query_tree.rs
index 9b4b38f76..4da4b3317 100755
--- a/milli/src/search/query_tree.rs
+++ b/milli/src/search/query_tree.rs
@@ -18,8 +18,9 @@ type IsPrefix = bool;
 #[derive(Clone, PartialEq, Eq, Hash)]
 pub enum Operation {
     And(Vec<Operation>),
-    // serie of consecutive non prefix and exact words
-    Phrase(Vec<String>),
+    // series of consecutive non prefix and exact words
+    // `None` means a stop word.
+    Phrase(Vec<Option<String>>),
     Or(IsOptionalWord, Vec<Operation>),
     Query(Query),
 }
@@ -75,9 +76,13 @@ impl Operation {
         }
     }
 
-    fn phrase(mut words: Vec<String>) -> Self {
+    fn phrase(mut words: Vec<Option<String>>) -> Self {
         if words.len() == 1 {
-            Self::Query(Query { prefix: false, kind: QueryKind::exact(words.pop().unwrap()) })
+            if let Some(word) = words.pop().unwrap() {
+                Self::Query(Query { prefix: false, kind: QueryKind::exact(word) })
+            } else {
+                Self::Phrase(words)
+            }
         } else {
             Self::Phrase(words)
         }
@@ -370,7 +375,10 @@ fn create_query_tree(
             PrimitiveQueryPart::Word(word, prefix) => {
                 let mut children = synonyms(ctx, &[&word])?.unwrap_or_default();
                 if let Some((left, right)) = split_best_frequency(ctx, &word)? {
-                    children.push(Operation::Phrase(vec![left.to_string(), right.to_string()]));
+                    children.push(Operation::Phrase(vec![
+                        Some(left.to_string()),
+                        Some(right.to_string()),
+                    ]));
                 }
                 let (word_len_one_typo, word_len_two_typo) = ctx.min_word_len_for_typo()?;
                 let exact_words = ctx.exact_words();
@@ -583,7 +591,11 @@ fn create_matching_words(
             PrimitiveQueryPart::Phrase(words) => {
                 let ids: Vec<_> =
                     (0..words.len()).into_iter().map(|i| id + i as PrimitiveWordId).collect();
-                let words = words.into_iter().map(|w| MatchingWord::new(w, 0, false)).collect();
+                let words = words
+                    .into_iter()
+                    .filter_map(|w| w)
+                    .map(|w| MatchingWord::new(w, 0, false))
+                    .collect();
                 matching_words.push((words, ids));
             }
         }
@@ -685,7 +697,7 @@ pub type PrimitiveQuery = Vec<PrimitiveQueryPart>;
 
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub enum PrimitiveQueryPart {
-    Phrase(Vec<String>),
+    Phrase(Vec<Option<String>>),
     Word(String, IsPrefix),
 }
 
@@ -735,7 +747,11 @@ where
                 // 2. if the word is not the last token of the query and is not a stop_word we push it as a non-prefix word,
                 // 3. if the word is the last token of the query we push it as a prefix word.
                 if quoted {
-                    phrase.push(token.lemma().to_string());
+                    if stop_words.as_ref().map_or(false, |swords| swords.contains(token.lemma())) {
+                        phrase.push(None)
+                    } else {
+                        phrase.push(Some(token.lemma().to_string()));
+                    }
                 } else if peekable.peek().is_some() {
                     if !stop_words.as_ref().map_or(false, |swords| swords.contains(token.lemma())) {
                         primitive_query