diff --git a/sphinx/search.py b/sphinx/search.py
index 7a200581e..8241c45ce 100644
--- a/sphinx/search.py
+++ b/sphinx/search.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ that  the  their  then  there  these  they  this  to
 was  will  with
 """.split())
 
+
 class _JavaScriptIndex(object):
     """
     The search index as javascript file that calls a function
@@ -44,8 +45,7 @@ class _JavaScriptIndex(object):
     SUFFIX = ')'
 
     def dumps(self, data):
-        return self.PREFIX + json.dumps(data, separators=(',', ':')) \
-               + self.SUFFIX
+        return self.PREFIX + json.dumps(data) + self.SUFFIX
 
     def loads(self, s):
         data = s[len(self.PREFIX):-len(self.SUFFIX)]
@@ -119,8 +119,12 @@ class IndexBuilder(object):
             raise ValueError('old format')
         index2fn = frozen['filenames']
         self._titles = dict(zip(index2fn, frozen['titles']))
-        self._mapping = dict((k, set(index2fn[i] for i in v))
-                             for (k, v) in frozen['terms'].iteritems())
+        self._mapping = {}
+        for k, v in frozen['terms'].iteritems():
+            if isinstance(v, int):
+                self._mapping[k] = set([index2fn[v]])
+            else:
+                self._mapping[k] = set(index2fn[i] for i in v)
         # no need to load keywords/desctypes
 
     def dump(self, stream, format):
@@ -149,6 +153,16 @@ class IndexBuilder(object):
             pdict[name] = (fn2index[doc], i)
         return rv
 
+    def get_terms(self, fn2index):
+        rv = {}
+        for k, v in self._mapping.iteritems():
+            if len(v) == 1:
+                fn, = v
+                rv[k] = fn2index[fn]
+            else:
+                rv[k] = [fn2index[fn] for fn in v]
+        return rv
+
     def freeze(self):
         """Create a usable data structure for serializing."""
         filenames = self._titles.keys()
@@ -157,8 +171,7 @@ class IndexBuilder(object):
         return dict(
             filenames=filenames,
             titles=titles,
-            terms=dict((k, [fn2index[fn] for fn in v])
-                       for (k, v) in self._mapping.iteritems()),
+            terms=self.get_terms(fn2index),
             descrefs=self.get_descrefs(fn2index),
             modules=self.get_modules(fn2index),
             desctypes=dict((v, k) for (k, v) in self._desctypes.items()),
diff --git a/sphinx/static/searchtools.js b/sphinx/static/searchtools.js
index 214217f40..e945d20f0 100644
--- a/sphinx/static/searchtools.js
+++ b/sphinx/static/searchtools.js
@@ -287,12 +287,12 @@ var Search = {
   },
 
   query : function(query) {
-    // stem the searchwords and add them to the
+    // stem the searchterms and add them to the
     // correct list
     var stemmer = new PorterStemmer();
-    var searchwords = [];
+    var searchterms = [];
     var excluded = [];
-    var hlwords = [];
+    var hlterms = [];
     var tmp = query.split(/\s+/);
     var object = (tmp.length == 1) ? tmp[0].toLowerCase() : null;
     for (var i = 0; i < tmp.length; i++) {
@@ -304,23 +304,23 @@ var Search = {
         word = word.substr(1);
       }
       else {
-        var toAppend = searchwords;
-        hlwords.push(tmp[i].toLowerCase());
+        var toAppend = searchterms;
+        hlterms.push(tmp[i].toLowerCase());
       }
       // only add if not already in the list
       if (!$.contains(toAppend, word))
         toAppend.push(word);
     };
-    var highlightstring = '?highlight=' + $.urlencode(hlwords.join(" "));
+    var highlightstring = '?highlight=' + $.urlencode(hlterms.join(" "));
 
     console.debug('SEARCH: searching for:');
-    console.info('required: ', searchwords);
+    console.info('required: ', searchterms);
     console.info('excluded: ', excluded);
 
     // prepare search
     var filenames = this._index.filenames;
     var titles = this._index.titles;
-    var words = this._index.terms;
+    var terms = this._index.terms;
     var descrefs = this._index.descrefs;
     var modules = this._index.modules;
     var desctypes = this._index.desctypes;
@@ -343,7 +343,7 @@ var Search = {
         for (var name in descrefs[prefix]) {
           if (name.toLowerCase().indexOf(object) > -1) {
             match = descrefs[prefix][name];
-            fullname = prefix + '.' + name;
+            fullname = (prefix ? prefix + '.' : '') + name;
             descr = desctypes[match[1]] + _(', in ') + titles[match[0]];
             objectResults.push([filenames[match[0]], fullname, '#'+fullname, descr]);
           }
@@ -357,12 +357,15 @@ var Search = {
     });
 
 
-    // perform the search on the required words
-    for (var i = 0; i < searchwords.length; i++) {
-      var word = searchwords[i];
+    // perform the search on the required terms
+    for (var i = 0; i < searchterms.length; i++) {
+      var word = searchterms[i];
       // no match but word was a required one
-      if ((files = words[word]) == null)
+      if ((files = terms[word]) == null)
         break;
+      if (files.length == undefined) {
+        files = [files];
+      }
       // create the mapping
       for (var j = 0; j < files.length; j++) {
         var file = files[j];
@@ -373,18 +376,19 @@ var Search = {
       }
     }
 
-    // now check if the files don't contain excluded words
+    // now check if the files don't contain excluded terms
     for (var file in fileMap) {
       var valid = true;
 
       // check if all requirements are matched
-      if (fileMap[file].length != searchwords.length)
+      if (fileMap[file].length != searchterms.length)
         continue;
 
-      // ensure that none of the excluded words is in the
+      // ensure that none of the excluded terms is in the
       // search result.
       for (var i = 0; i < excluded.length; i++) {
-        if ($.contains(words[excluded[i]] || [], file)) {
+        if (terms[excluded[i]] == file ||
+            $.contains(terms[excluded[i]] || [], file)) {
           valid = false;
           break;
         }
@@ -398,7 +402,7 @@ var Search = {
 
     // delete unused variables in order to not waste
     // memory until list is retrieved completely
-    delete filenames, titles, words;
+    delete filenames, titles, terms;
 
     // now sort the regular results descending by title
     regularResults.sort(function(a, b) {
@@ -429,7 +433,7 @@ var Search = {
           });
         } else {
           $.get('_sources/' + item[0] + '.txt', function(data) {
-            listItem.append($.makeSearchSummary(data, searchwords, hlwords));
+            listItem.append($.makeSearchSummary(data, searchterms, hlterms));
             Search.output.append(listItem);
             listItem.slideDown(5, function() {
               displayNextItem();
diff --git a/sphinx/util/json.py b/sphinx/util/json.py
index 5bf1ace4b..a2fda2b8d 100644
--- a/sphinx/util/json.py
+++ b/sphinx/util/json.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import re
 _str_re  = re.compile(r'"(\\\\|\\"|[^"])*"')
 _int_re  = re.compile(r'\d+')
 _name_re = re.compile(r'[a-zA-Z]\w*')
+_nameonly_re = re.compile(r'[a-zA-Z]\w*$')
 
 # escape \, ", control characters and everything outside ASCII
 ESCAPE_ASCII = re.compile(r'([\\"]|[^\ -~])')
@@ -78,7 +79,7 @@ def dumps(obj, key=False):
     if key:
         if not isinstance(obj, basestring):
             obj = str(obj)
-        if _name_re.match(obj) and obj not in reswords:
+        if _nameonly_re.match(obj) and obj not in reswords:
             return obj  # return it as a bare word
         else:
             return encode_string(obj)