diff --git a/lib/search.rb b/lib/search.rb
index 377de504d82..91131dbffb6 100644
--- a/lib/search.rb
+++ b/lib/search.rb
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ class Search
   end
 
   attr_accessor :term
+  attr_reader :clean_term
 
   def initialize(term, opts=nil)
     @opts = opts || {}
@@ -163,6 +164,8 @@ class Search
 
     # Removes any zero-width characters from search terms
     term.to_s.gsub!(/[\u200B-\u200D\uFEFF]/, '')
+    @clean_term = term.to_s.dup
+
     term = process_advanced_search!(term)
 
     if term.present?
@@ -179,7 +182,7 @@ class Search
       @limit = Search.per_filter
     end
 
-    @results = GroupedSearchResults.new(@opts[:type_filter], term, @search_context, @include_blurbs, @blurb_length)
+    @results = GroupedSearchResults.new(@opts[:type_filter], clean_term, @search_context, @include_blurbs, @blurb_length)
   end
 
   def valid?
diff --git a/spec/components/search_spec.rb b/spec/components/search_spec.rb
index 5ab747be538..62a22f95cb1 100644
--- a/spec/components/search_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/search_spec.rb
@@ -65,11 +65,10 @@ describe Search do
 
     expect(term == 'capybara').to eq(false)
 
-    search =  Search.new(term)
-    search.execute
-
+    search = Search.new(term)
     expect(search.valid?).to eq(true)
     expect(search.term).to eq('capybara')
+    expect(search.clean_term).to eq('capybara')
   end
 
   it 'does not search when the search term is too small' do