Use dabbrev-expand within isearch-mode Installation: put isearch-dabbrev.el somewhere in your load-path and add these lines to your .emacs: (eval-after-load "isearch" '(progn (require 'isearch-dabbrev) (define-key isearch-mode-map (kbd "") 'isearch-dabbrev-expand))) Then you can use TAB to do dabbrev-expand work in isearch-mode