The user's problem isn't a formula error; it's a thinking error that legacy tools have taught us to accept. You don't need a more complicated workaround to exclude "card" and "carpet." You need a tool that understands the difference between a word and a string of characters.
The FILTER function paired with SEARCH is a blunt instrument. It scans for any occurrence of the letters "c-a-r" in sequence. This works fine for a unique identifier, but it breaks the moment you search for something common. The user asked for "car" and got "care," "carrying," and "carton." That isn't a failure of the formula. It is a failure of the underlying logic that treats every word as a mere collection of characters. A spreadsheet should know that "car" is a noun, not a substring. An AI-native approach would recognize the semantic boundary. It would see the spaces around the word, understand the plural form, and ask if you meant the vehicle or the verb "to carry." The user shouldn't have to explain that to the machine.
What this means for you is practical: stop wasting time building escape hatches for bad data matching. The traditional approach demands you write nested functions, add wildcards, or create helper columns to catch every edge case. That time is gone. A modern tool should handle the ambiguity of language as a feature, not a bug. When you search for "car," the system should present a simple prompt: "Show only exact matches for 'car' and 'cars'? Or include related terms like 'automobile'?" That is not a fantasy. That is a conversation the tool can have with you in real time.
You have been trained to think that more complexity equals more control. It does not. Complexity just creates more surface area for errors. The solution here is not a better regex pattern. It is a better relationship with your data. Stop searching for workarounds and start expecting your spreadsheet to understand what you actually mean. The user who posted this question is not asking for a formula fix. They are asking for permission to stop fighting their tools. Give yourself that permission.