2. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a purchase phrase creator, the purchase phrase creator configured to output a user interface comprising functionality for the plurality of users to create the purchase phrases.
1. A system for using purchase phrases to generate recommendations, the system comprising: a computer system comprising computer hardware, the computer system programmed to implement: a purchase phrase index builder configured to: identify purchase phrases used by a plurality of users of an electronic catalog system to purchase items represented in the electronic catalog system, and build a purchase phrase index by at least associating each of the purchased items with the purchase phrases used to purchase the items; a natural language processor configured to identify one or more similar purchase phrases that are at least similar to a purchase phrase created by a target user; and a purchase phrase recommender configured to generate recommendations for the target user by at least: using at least the identified one or more similar purchase phrases to identify one or more of the purchased items as candidate recommendations from the purchase phrase index, and selecting one or more items from the one or more candidate recommendations to present to the target user as the recommendations.