+*Fields* [#aka-pref]_
+correspond to attributes of mail messages. Some are inherent (and
+immutable) like ``subject``, while others ``tag`` and ``property`` are
+settable by the user. Each concrete field in
+:any:`the table below <field-table>`
+is discussed further under "Search prefixes" in
+:any:`notmuch-search-terms(7)`. The row *user* refers to user defined
+fields, described in :any:`notmuch-config(1)`.
+
+Most fields are either *phrase fields* [#aka-prob]_ (which match
+sequences of words), or *term fields* [#aka-bool]_ (which match exact
+strings). *Phrase splitting* breaks the term (basic value or quoted
+string) into words, ignore punctuation. Phrase splitting is applied to
+terms in phrase (probabilistic) fields. Both phrase splitting and
+stemming apply only in phrase fields.
+
+Each term or phrase field has an associated combining operator
+(``and`` or ``or``) used to combine the queries from each element of
+the tail of the list. This is generally ``or`` for those fields where
+a message has one such attribute, and ``and`` otherwise.
+
+Term or phrase fields can contain arbitrarily complex queries made up
+from terms, operators, and modifiers, but not other fields.
+
+.. _field-table:
+
+.. table:: Fields with supported modifiers
+
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | field | combine | type | expand | wildcard | regex |
+ +============+===========+===========+===========+===========+==========+
+ | *none* | and | | no | yes | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | *user* | and | phrase | no | yes | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | attachment | and | phrase | yes | yes | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | body | and | phrase | no | no | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | date | | range | no | no | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | folder | or | phrase | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | from | and | phrase | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | id | or | term | no | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | is | and | term | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | lastmod | | range | no | no | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | mid | or | term | no | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | mimetype | or | phrase | yes | yes | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | path | or | term | no | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | property | and | term | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | subject | and | phrase | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | tag | and | term | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | thread | or | term | yes | yes | yes |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+ | to | and | phrase | yes | yes | no |
+ +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------+
+