diff --git a/extra/ui/tools/operations/operations.factor b/extra/ui/tools/operations/operations.factor
index 2375730a81..fbb4338b17 100755
--- a/extra/ui/tools/operations/operations.factor
+++ b/extra/ui/tools/operations/operations.factor
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ source-editor
 "These commands operate on the Factor word named by the token at the caret position."
 \ selected-word
 [ selected-word ]
-[ search ] 
+[ dup search [ ] [ no-word ] ?if ] 
 define-operation-map
 
 interactor