diff --git a/whelk-core/src/main/groovy/whelk/search2/QueryResult.java b/whelk-core/src/main/groovy/whelk/search2/QueryResult.java
index 46b5effb38..ccdb626786 100644
--- a/whelk-core/src/main/groovy/whelk/search2/QueryResult.java
+++ b/whelk-core/src/main/groovy/whelk/search2/QueryResult.java
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
 import java.util.regex.Pattern;
 import java.util.stream.Collectors;
 
+import static whelk.JsonLd.SEARCH_KEY;
 import static whelk.search2.QueryUtil.castToStringObjectMap;
 import static whelk.util.DocumentUtil.getAtPath;
 import static whelk.util.DocumentUtil.traverse;
@@ -81,7 +82,13 @@ private static Map<String, Object> normalizeResponse(Map<?, ?> esResponse) {
         return norm;
     }
 
-    private record EsItem(Map<String, Object> map) {
+    private class EsItem {
+        private final Map<String, Object> map;
+
+        EsItem(Map<String, Object> map) {
+            this.map = map;
+        }
+
         private Map<String, Object> toLd(Function<Map<String, Object>, Map<String, Object>> applyLens) {
             LdItem ldItem = new LdItem(applyLens.apply(map));
 
@@ -90,7 +97,10 @@ private Map<String, Object> toLd(Function<Map<String, Object>, Map<String, Objec
             // reverseLinks must be re-added because they might get filtered out in applyLens().
             getReverseLinks().ifPresent(ldItem::addReverseLinks);
 
-            getScoreExplanation().ifPresent(ldItem::addScore);
+            if (debug.contains(QueryParams.Debug.ES_SCORE)) {
+                ldItem.addSearchStrings(this);
+                getScoreExplanation().ifPresent(ldItem::addScore);
+            }
 
             return ldItem.map;
         }
@@ -135,6 +145,18 @@ private void addReverseLinks(Map<String, Object> reverseLinks) {
             map.put("reverseLinks", reverseLinks);
         }
 
+        @SuppressWarnings({"rawtypes", "unchecked"})
+        private void addSearchStrings(EsItem esItem) {
+            DocumentUtil.traverse(esItem.map, (value, path) -> {
+                if (!path.isEmpty() && path.getLast().equals(SEARCH_KEY)) {
+                    if (getAtPath(map, path.subList(0, path.size() - 1)) instanceof Map m) {
+                        m.put(SEARCH_KEY, value);
+                    }
+                }
+                return new DocumentUtil.Nop();
+            });
+        }
+
         private void addScore(Map<String, Object> scoreExplanation) {
             var scorePerField = getScorePerField(scoreExplanation);
             var totalScore = scorePerField.values().stream().reduce((double) 0, Double::sum);