diff --git a/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.js b/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.js
index b18895e1f..22535cb10 100644
--- a/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.js
+++ b/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.js
@@ -1,16 +1,18 @@
 import flow from 'lodash/flow';
-import words from 'lodash/words';
-import lowerCase from 'lodash/lowerCase';
+import toLower from 'lodash/toLower';
 import deburr from 'lodash/deburr';
 import every from 'lodash/every';
 import includes from 'lodash/includes';
 
 // normalize a term
-const cleanup = flow([lowerCase, deburr]);
+const cleanup = flow([toLower, deburr]);
 
 // given an input query string, return a list of search terms
 export function termList(filterText) {
-  return words(filterText).map(cleanup);
+  return filterText
+    .split(' ')
+    .map(cleanup)
+    .filter(val => val);
 }
 
 // given a list of search terms, decide whether to match some section or page
diff --git a/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.spec.js b/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.spec.js
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d01461c89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/common/DocsFilter/utils.spec.js
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import { termList, matches } from './utils';
+
+console.log(termList, matches);
+
+test('termList', () => {
+  expect(termList('Term1 term2')).toEqual(['term1', 'term2']);
+  expect(termList('lowercase UPPERCASE')).toEqual(['lowercase', 'uppercase']);
+  expect(termList('  space     between')).toEqual(['space', 'between']);
+  expect(termList('  space     between')).toEqual(['space', 'between']);
+  expect(termList('ĜĚĔĶŜ ĝęėķś')).toEqual(['geeks', 'geeks']);
+});
+
+test('matches', () => {
+  expect(matches(termList('KButton'), 'KButton')).toEqual(true);
+  expect(matches(termList('KButton'), 'KCheckbox')).toEqual(false);
+
+  // TODO - add more complex variations
+});