1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: in response to a search query having a search term having a plurality of characters received from a client, determining a current language locale; dynamically building a state machine having a plurality of nodes to represent variance of the search term having identical meaning of the search term based on the current language locale, each of the nodes representing one of the characters in the search term, wherein the state machine includes at least two nodes corresponding to different characters that have an identical meaning under the current language locale; traversing each node of the state machine to identify one or more postings lists of an inverted index corresponding to the plurality nodes of the state machine; and wherein each node of the state machine is associated with a collation key presenting a collation of variance of different characters having an identical meaning in different language locales; wherein traversing the state machine comprises: matching a first collation key of each node of the state machine against a second collation key of a corresponding character of the search term; and removing from the state machine a character candidate having a collation key that does not match the second collation key; returning to the client one or more item identifiers obtained from the one or more postings list, the one or more item identifiers identifying one or more files that contain the variance of the search term represented by the state machine.