Searches are for any form of your query string, including fragments. If you prefer a whole word search, precede your query with a -w (that's hyphen W <space>). For example, tomato will match tomato, tomatoes, and tomatoey, but then ale will match ale, hale, and kale. So to retrieve references to the beverage only, use -w ale.
Confused? You can always use the Google search engine