diff --git a/modules/records/records.ts b/modules/records/records.ts
index 0ce75d6..6b7735d 100644
--- a/modules/records/records.ts
+++ b/modules/records/records.ts
@@ -153,9 +153,15 @@ export class Records {
    * Where a phrase appears, case-insensitively, as written — no stemming, no ranking, because a
    * design record is found by its own words and a reader deciding which words matter would be a
    * second opinion about somebody else's document. Bounded, and says when it was.
+   *
+   * **The record is wrapped prose, and a phrase does not know where the line ends.** Every document
+   * here wraps at a hundred columns, so a phrase of six words is as likely to straddle a line break
+   * as not; matched line by line, the first live search for a sentence of ADR 0025 found nothing.
+   * So a line is matched together with the one after it, joined by a space, and emphasis marks
+   * are ignored — `**reachable**` is the word reachable. A hit still names the line it starts on.
    */
   async search(query: string, limit = MOST_HITS): Promise<{ hits: Hit[]; more: boolean; commit: string }> {
-    const needle = query.trim().toLowerCase();
+    const needle = plain(query).toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
     if (!needle) throw new Error("search for a phrase; an empty one matches every line of every document");
     const cap = Math.max(1, Math.min(limit, MOST_HITS));
     const hits: Hit[] = [];
@@ -164,15 +170,22 @@ export class Records {
       const text = await fs.readFile(join(this.dir, path), "utf8");
       let heading = "";
       const lines = text.split("\n");
+      const flat = lines.map((l) => plain(l).toLowerCase().replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim());
       for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
         const line = lines[i]!;
         if (/^#{1,6}\s/.test(line)) heading = line.replace(/^#+\s*/, "").trim();
-        if (line.toLowerCase().includes(needle)) {
+        const here = flat[i]!;
+        const next = i + 1 < flat.length ? flat[i + 1]! : "";
+        // On this line, or across the break into the next — but not a phrase that begins on the
+        // next line alone, which is that line's hit.
+        const onThis = here.includes(needle);
+        const acrossTheBreak = !onThis && next !== "" && `${here} ${next}`.includes(needle) && !next.includes(needle);
+        if (onThis || acrossTheBreak) {
           if (hits.length >= cap) {
             more = true;
             break;
           }
-          hits.push({ path, line: i + 1, heading, text: line.trim() });
+          hits.push({ path, line: i + 1, heading, text: acrossTheBreak ? `${line.trim()} ${lines[i + 1]!.trim()}` : line.trim() });
         }
       }
       if (more) break;
@@ -249,6 +262,11 @@ export async function recordsFromEnv(env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv = process.env): Prom
   return new Records(dir, origin, repository);
 }
 
+/** A line without its markdown emphasis, so a phrase matches the words and not the marks. */
+function plain(line: string): string {
+  return line.replace(/[*_`]/g, "");
+}
+
 async function exists(path: string): Promise<boolean> {
   try {
     await fs.stat(path);
diff --git a/modules/records/test/records.test.ts b/modules/records/test/records.test.ts
index 1421fc0..104ddef 100644
--- a/modules/records/test/records.test.ts
+++ b/modules/records/test/records.test.ts
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ function aRepository(): string {
   mkdirSync(join(dir, "03-DESIGN"));
   writeFileSync(join(dir, "README.md"), "# A repository\n\nWhat this is.\n");
   writeFileSync(join(dir, "02-DECISIONS/0001-a-decision.md"), "# 1. A decision\n\n## Context\n\nThe context.\n\n## Decision\n\nWe decided the thing.\n");
-  writeFileSync(join(dir, "03-DESIGN/07-knowledge.md"), "# Knowledge\n\n## The stores\n\nSilence and success must never look alike.\n");
+  writeFileSync(join(dir, "03-DESIGN/07-knowledge.md"), "# Knowledge\n\n## The stores\n\nSilence and success must never look alike.\n\nA phrase that is wrapped at the\ncolumn where every document wraps, and **reachable is not the same as\nsurfacing** under emphasis.\n");
   git("add", "-A");
   git("commit", "--quiet", "-m", "first");
   return dir;
@@ -39,6 +39,15 @@ test("a phrase that appears in one design document comes back from where it is w
   assert.equal(found.hits[0]!.heading, "The stores");
   assert.match(found.commit, /^[0-9a-f]{40}$/, "the answer names the commit it was read at");
 
+  // Wrapped prose: a phrase across the line break is found, once, at the line it starts on; and
+  // emphasis marks are not part of the words.
+  const wrapped = await records.search("wrapped at the column where");
+  assert.deepEqual(wrapped.hits.map((h) => [h.path, h.line]), [["03-DESIGN/07-knowledge.md", 7]]);
+  const emphasised = await records.search("reachable is not the same as surfacing");
+  assert.deepEqual(emphasised.hits.map((h) => [h.path, h.line]), [["03-DESIGN/07-knowledge.md", 8]]);
+  const alsoOnOneLine = await records.search("under emphasis");
+  assert.equal(alsoOnOneLine.hits.length, 1, "a phrase on one line is not also counted from the line before it");
+
   const doc = await records.read("02-DECISIONS/0001-a-decision.md");
   assert.match(doc.content, /We decided the thing/);
   assert.equal(doc.truncated, false);