diff --git a/lib/text-highlight.ts b/lib/text-highlight.ts
index 18e7687e..7c2d6d2d 100644
--- a/lib/text-highlight.ts
+++ b/lib/text-highlight.ts
@@ -103,11 +103,11 @@ export function extractMatchedText(
       const expectedEnd = idx + fragment.length;
       const suffixSearchStart = Math.max(
         idx,
-        expectedEnd - normalizedSuffix.length - 20,
+        expectedEnd - normalizedSuffix.length - 50,
       );
       const suffixSearchEnd = Math.min(
         normalizedLower.length,
-        expectedEnd + 20,
+        expectedEnd + 50,
       );
       const searchWindow = normalizedLower.slice(
         suffixSearchStart,
@@ -175,44 +175,76 @@ export function findAndHighlightText(fragment: {
     }
   });
 
-  // Build a concatenated string of all text content with node boundaries.
-  // Insert a space between text nodes from different block-level parents
-  // so that "BACK-TO-GODHEAD" in <div>1</div> and "AN INSTRUMENT" in <div>2</div>
-  // become "BACK-TO-GODHEAD AN INSTRUMENT" instead of "BACK-TO-GODHEADAN INSTRUMENT".
+  // Build a concatenated string of all text content.
+  // We keep two parallel strings:
+  //   rawText  — exact concatenation of text nodes (for accurate segment mapping)
+  //   normText — with spaces inserted at element boundaries (for matching)
+  // And a posMap that maps each normText index back to a rawText index.
   const segments: { node: Text; start: number; end: number }[] = [];
-  let fullText = "";
+  let rawText = "";
+  let normText = "";
+  const posMap: number[] = []; // posMap[normIdx] = rawIdx
   let prevParent: Element | null = null;
+
   for (const node of allTextNodes) {
     const text = node.textContent || "";
     const parent = node.parentElement;
 
-    // Add a space separator when crossing into a different block-level parent
+    // Insert a space in normText when crossing element boundaries
+    // (so cross-paragraph searches work), but NOT in rawText
+    // (so segment offsets stay accurate for DOM highlighting).
     if (
       prevParent &&
       parent !== prevParent &&
-      fullText.length > 0 &&
-      !fullText.endsWith(" ")
+      normText.length > 0 &&
+      !normText.endsWith(" ") &&
+      !text.startsWith(" ")
     ) {
-      fullText += " ";
+      posMap.push(rawText.length); // the synthetic space maps to current raw position
+      normText += " ";
     }
     prevParent = parent;
 
+    const segStart = rawText.length;
     segments.push({
       node,
-      start: fullText.length,
-      end: fullText.length + text.length,
+      start: segStart,
+      end: segStart + text.length,
     });
-    fullText += text;
+
+    for (let i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
+      posMap.push(rawText.length + i);
+      normText += text[i];
+    }
+    rawText += text;
   }
 
-  // Normalize whitespace for matching
-  const normalizedFull = fullText.replace(/\s+/g, " ");
-  const normalizedFullLower = normalizedFull.toLowerCase();
+  // Collapse whitespace in normText for matching, rebuilding posMap
+  let collapsedNorm = "";
+  const collapsedPosMap: number[] = [];
+  let lastWasSpace = false;
+  for (let i = 0; i < normText.length; i++) {
+    const ch = normText[i];
+    const isSpace = /\s/.test(ch);
+    if (isSpace) {
+      if (!lastWasSpace) {
+        collapsedPosMap.push(posMap[i]);
+        collapsedNorm += " ";
+      }
+      lastWasSpace = true;
+    } else {
+      collapsedPosMap.push(posMap[i]);
+      collapsedNorm += ch;
+      lastWasSpace = false;
+    }
+  }
+
+  const normalizedFullLower = collapsedNorm.toLowerCase();
 
   // Search for the prefix in the full text (case-insensitive)
   const normalizedPrefix = fragment.prefix.replace(/\s+/g, " ").toLowerCase();
   let searchFrom = 0;
-  let matchStart = -1;
+  let matchStartNorm = -1;
 
   while (searchFrom < normalizedFullLower.length) {
     const idx = normalizedFullLower.indexOf(normalizedPrefix, searchFrom);
@@ -223,39 +255,46 @@ export function findAndHighlightText(fragment: {
       const normalizedSuffix = fragment.suffix
         .replace(/\s+/g, " ")
         .toLowerCase();
-      const expectedEnd = idx + fragment.length;
+      // Search for suffix near the expected end position in the normalized string.
+      // Use a wider tolerance window (±50) since normalization can shift positions.
+      const expectedEndNorm = idx + fragment.length;
       const suffixSearchStart = Math.max(
         idx,
-        expectedEnd - normalizedSuffix.length - 20,
+        expectedEndNorm - normalizedSuffix.length - 50,
       );
       const suffixSearchEnd = Math.min(
         normalizedFullLower.length,
-        expectedEnd + 20,
+        expectedEndNorm + 50,
       );
       const searchWindow = normalizedFullLower.slice(
         suffixSearchStart,
         suffixSearchEnd,
       );
       if (searchWindow.includes(normalizedSuffix)) {
-        matchStart = idx;
+        matchStartNorm = idx;
         break;
       }
     } else {
-      // No suffix — just match prefix + approximate length
-      matchStart = idx;
+      matchStartNorm = idx;
       break;
     }
     searchFrom = idx + 1;
   }
 
-  if (matchStart === -1) return false;
+  if (matchStartNorm === -1) return false;
 
-  // Slice from original (not lowercased) to preserve original casing in highlight
-  const matchEnd = Math.min(
-    matchStart + fragment.length,
-    normalizedFull.length,
+  // Map normalized match range back to raw text positions via posMap
+  const matchEndNorm = Math.min(
+    matchStartNorm + fragment.length,
+    collapsedNorm.length,
   );
 
+  const matchStart = collapsedPosMap[matchStartNorm] ?? 0;
+  const matchEnd =
+    matchEndNorm < collapsedPosMap.length
+      ? collapsedPosMap[matchEndNorm]
+      : rawText.length;
+
   // Map the match range back to DOM text nodes and wrap with <mark>
   for (const seg of segments) {
     const overlapStart = Math.max(matchStart, seg.start);