diff --git a/src/btreeidx.cc b/src/btreeidx.cc
index e920f76e..913d116e 100644
--- a/src/btreeidx.cc
+++ b/src/btreeidx.cc
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ void BtreeIndex::openIndex( IndexInfo const & indexInfo, File::Class & file, QMu
   rootNode.clear();
 }
 
-vector< WordArticleLink > BtreeIndex::findArticles( wstring const & search_word, bool ignoreDiacritics )
+vector< WordArticleLink >
+BtreeIndex::findArticles( wstring const & search_word, bool ignoreDiacritics, uint32_t maxMatchCount )
 {
   //First trim ending zero
   wstring word = gd::removeTrailingZero( search_word );
@@ -89,7 +90,7 @@ vector< WordArticleLink > BtreeIndex::findArticles( wstring const & search_word,
 
     if ( chainOffset && exactMatch )
     {
-      result = readChain( chainOffset );
+      result = readChain( chainOffset, maxMatchCount );
 
       antialias( word, result, ignoreDiacritics );
     }
@@ -108,6 +109,7 @@ vector< WordArticleLink > BtreeIndex::findArticles( wstring const & search_word,
   return result;
 }
 
+
 BtreeWordSearchRequest::BtreeWordSearchRequest( BtreeDictionary & dict_,
                                                 wstring const & str_,
                                                 unsigned minLength_,
@@ -752,7 +754,7 @@ char const * BtreeIndex::findChainOffsetExactOrPrefix( wstring const & target,
   }
 }
 
-vector< WordArticleLink > BtreeIndex::readChain( char const * & ptr )
+vector< WordArticleLink > BtreeIndex::readChain( char const *& ptr, uint32_t maxMatchCount )
 {
   uint32_t chainSize;
 
@@ -762,8 +764,7 @@ vector< WordArticleLink > BtreeIndex::readChain( char const * & ptr )
 
   vector< WordArticleLink > result;
 
-  while( chainSize )
-  {
+  while ( chainSize && ( maxMatchCount < 0 || result.size() < maxMatchCount ) ) {
     string str = ptr;
     ptr += str.size() + 1;
 
diff --git a/src/btreeidx.hh b/src/btreeidx.hh
index 1b0cc1d8..76dd5b4d 100644
--- a/src/btreeidx.hh
+++ b/src/btreeidx.hh
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public:
 
   /// Finds articles that match the given string. A case-insensitive search
   /// is performed.
-  vector< WordArticleLink > findArticles( wstring const &, bool ignoreDiacritics = false );
+  vector< WordArticleLink > findArticles( wstring const &, bool ignoreDiacritics = false, uint32_t maxMatchCount = -1 );
 
   /// Find all unique article links in the index
   void findAllArticleLinks( QVector< WordArticleLink > & articleLinks );
@@ -133,7 +133,7 @@ protected:
 
   /// Reads the word-article links' chain at the given offset. The pointer
   /// is updated to point to the next chain, if there's any.
-  vector< WordArticleLink > readChain( char const * & );
+  vector< WordArticleLink > readChain( char const *&, uint32_t maxMatchCount = -1 );
 
   /// Drops any aliases which arose due to folding. Only case-folded aliases
   /// are left.
diff --git a/src/dict/stardict.cc b/src/dict/stardict.cc
index a1ed54bb..4a909d6c 100644
--- a/src/dict/stardict.cc
+++ b/src/dict/stardict.cc
@@ -1258,7 +1258,8 @@ void StardictHeadwordsRequest::run()
 
   try
   {
-    vector< WordArticleLink > chain = dict.findArticles( word );
+    //limited the synomys to at most 10 entries
+    vector< WordArticleLink > chain = dict.findArticles( word, false, 10 );
 
     wstring caseFolded = Folding::applySimpleCaseOnly( word );
 
@@ -1295,11 +1296,9 @@ void StardictHeadwordsRequest::run()
   finish();
 }
 
-sptr< Dictionary::WordSearchRequest >
-  StardictDictionary::findHeadwordsForSynonym( wstring const & word )
-  
+sptr< Dictionary::WordSearchRequest > StardictDictionary::findHeadwordsForSynonym( wstring const & word )
 {
-  return synonymSearchEnabled ? std::make_shared<StardictHeadwordsRequest>( word, *this ) :
+  return synonymSearchEnabled ? std::make_shared< StardictHeadwordsRequest >( word, *this ) :
                                 Class::findHeadwordsForSynonym( word );
 }
 
@@ -1371,10 +1370,9 @@ void StardictArticleRequest::run()
       }
     }
 
-
     multimap< wstring, pair< string, string > > mainArticles, alternateArticles;
 
-    set< uint32_t > articlesIncluded; // Some synonms make it that the articles
+    set< uint32_t > articlesIncluded; // Some synonyms make it that the articles
                                       // appear several times. We combat this
                                       // by only allowing them to appear once.