1. A method comprising: selecting a numeric attribute of an item in an electronic catalog, the catalog containing items which have values for the selected attribute; linking the numeric attribute to a descriptive word; linking the numeric attribute to a comparative operator and a value to which the comparison is applied; selecting a threshold number of items for a descriptive word assignment; executing the comparative operator on values of the numeric attributes to compare all items having a value for the selected attribute; and assigning a descriptive word to an item based on the results of executing the operator; and generating a list and displaying the list to a user, the list having only those items to which descriptive words used in the search have been assigned.