diff --git a/README b/README
index 4257001..5e48bdf 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -15,7 +15,10 @@ DESCRIPTION
        Tracks your most used directories, based on 'frecency'.
 
        After  a  short  learning  phase, z will take you to the most 'frecent'
-       directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line.
+       directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line, in
+       order.
+
+       For example, z foo bar would match /foo/bar but not /bar/foo.
 
 OPTIONS
        -c     restrict matches to subdirectories of the current directory
@@ -33,7 +36,7 @@ OPTIONS
 EXAMPLES
        z foo         cd to most frecent dir matching foo
 
-       z foo bar     cd to most frecent dir matching foo and bar
+       z foo bar     cd to most frecent dir matching foo, then bar
 
        z -r foo      cd to highest ranked dir matching foo
 
diff --git a/z.1 b/z.1
index 4d2a607..256c83d 100644
--- a/z.1
+++ b/z.1
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ DESCRIPTION
 Tracks your most used directories, based on 'frecency'.
 .P
 After a short learning phase, \fBz\fR will take you to the most 'frecent'
-directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line.
+directory that matches ALL of the regexes given on the command line, in order.
+
+For example, \fBz foo bar\fR would match \fB/foo/bar\fR but not \fB/bar/foo\fR.
 .SH
 OPTIONS
 .TP
@@ -40,7 +42,7 @@ remove the current directory from the datafile
 cd to most frecent dir matching foo
 .TP 14
 \fBz foo bar\fR
-cd to most frecent dir matching foo and bar
+cd to most frecent dir matching foo, then bar
 .TP 14
 \fBz -r foo\fR
 cd to highest ranked dir matching foo
diff --git a/z.sh b/z.sh
index a1cd175..3b2d1d1 100644
--- a/z.sh
+++ b/z.sh
@@ -88,15 +88,13 @@ _z() {
         done < "$datafile" | awk -v q="$2" -F"|" '
             BEGIN {
                 if( q == tolower(q) ) imatch = 1
-                split(substr(q, 3), fnd, " ")
+                q = substr(q, 3)
+                gsub(" ", ".*", q)
             }
             {
                 if( imatch ) {
-                    for( x in fnd ) tolower($1) !~ tolower(fnd[x]) && $1 = ""
-                } else {
-                    for( x in fnd ) $1 !~ fnd[x] && $1 = ""
-                }
-                if( $1 ) print $1
+                    if( tolower($1) ~ tolower(q) ) print $1
+                } else if( $1 ~ q ) print $1
             }
         ' 2>/dev/null
 
@@ -167,18 +165,20 @@ _z() {
                 for( x in matches ) if( matches[x] && x !~ clean_short ) return
                 return short
             }
-            BEGIN { split(q, words, " "); hi_rank = ihi_rank = -9999999999 }
+            BEGIN {
+                q = substr(q, 2)
+                gsub(" ", ".*", q)
+                hi_rank = ihi_rank = -9999999999
+            }
             {
                 if( typ == "rank" ) {
                     rank = $2
                 } else if( typ == "recent" ) {
                     rank = $3 - t
                 } else rank = frecent($2, $3)
-                matches[$1] = imatches[$1] = rank
-                for( x in words ) {
-                    if( $1 !~ words[x] ) delete matches[$1]
-                    if( tolower($1) !~ tolower(words[x]) ) delete imatches[$1]
-                }
+                if( $1 ~ q ) {
+                    matches[$1] = rank
+                } else if( tolower($1) ~ tolower(q) ) imatches[$1] = rank
                 if( matches[$1] && matches[$1] > hi_rank ) {
                     best_match = $1
                     hi_rank = matches[$1]