diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index c4dc10442c..52009fddc1 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ unreleased
       files (#1854)
     - Fix occurrences bug in which relative paths in index files are resolved against the
       PWD rather than the SOURCE_ROOT (#1855)
+    - Fix exception in polarity search (#1858 fixes #1113)
 
 merlin 5.2.1
 ============
diff --git a/src/analysis/polarity_search.ml b/src/analysis/polarity_search.ml
index bf3e124c97..b01c971317 100644
--- a/src/analysis/polarity_search.ml
+++ b/src/analysis/polarity_search.ml
@@ -71,8 +71,10 @@ let build_query ~positive ~negative env =
       incr r;
       None)
     else
-      let set, _ = Env.find_type_by_name l env in
-      Some (normalize_path env set)
+      try
+        let set, _ = Env.find_type_by_name l env in
+        Some (normalize_path env set)
+      with Not_found -> None
   in
   let pos_fun = ref 0 and neg_fun = ref 0 in
   let positive = List.filter_map positive ~f:(prepare pos_fun) in
diff --git a/src/commands/new_commands.ml b/src/commands/new_commands.ml
index 836c3334f6..67a11911e1 100644
--- a/src/commands/new_commands.ml
+++ b/src/commands/new_commands.ml
@@ -569,7 +569,11 @@ let all_commands =
       ~spec:
         [ arg "-position" "<position> Position to complete"
             (marg_position (fun pos (query, _pos) -> (query, pos)));
-          arg "-query" "<string> Query of the form TODO"
+          arg "-query"
+            "<string> Query of the form every input parameters prefixed by `-` \
+             and output parameters prefixed by `+`. In example: -string \
+             +option will fetch function that takes string and returns an \
+             option. (You can't parametrize types in polarity queries)"
             (Marg.param "string" (fun query (_prefix, pos) -> (query, pos)))
         ]
       ~default:("", `None)
diff --git a/tests/test-dirs/search/issue1113.t b/tests/test-dirs/search/issue1113.t
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2c87dcd63c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test-dirs/search/issue1113.t
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+  $ cat >main.ml <<EOF
+  > let f x = succ x
+  > EOF
+
+  $ $MERLIN single search-by-polarity -filename ./main.ml \
+  > -position 5:25 -query "-ezfnifzen +ezfzef" |
+  > tr '\n' ' ' | jq  '.value.entries[:10][] | {name,desc}'
+  {
+    "name": "CamlinternalOO.dummy_table",
+    "desc": "CamlinternalOO.table"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "CamlinternalOO.params",
+    "desc": "CamlinternalOO.params"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__FILE__",
+    "desc": "string"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__FILE__",
+    "desc": "string"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__FUNCTION__",
+    "desc": "string"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__FUNCTION__",
+    "desc": "string"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__LINE__",
+    "desc": "int"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__LINE__",
+    "desc": "int"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__LOC__",
+    "desc": "string"
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "__LOC__",
+    "desc": "string"
+  }
+
+  $ $MERLIN single search-by-type -filename ./main.ml \
+  > -position 5:25 -limit 10 -query "ezfnifzen -> ezfzef" |
+  > tr '\n' ' ' | jq  '.value[] | {name,type,cost}'
+  {
+    "name": "Gc.major",
+    "type": "unit -> unit",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "Gc.minor",
+    "type": "unit -> unit",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "Sys.time",
+    "type": "unit -> float",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "read_int",
+    "type": "unit -> int",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "read_int",
+    "type": "unit -> int",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "flush_all",
+    "type": "unit -> unit",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "flush_all",
+    "type": "unit -> unit",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "read_line",
+    "type": "unit -> string",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "read_line",
+    "type": "unit -> string",
+    "cost": 13
+  }
+  {
+    "name": "Bytes.copy",
+    "type": "bytes -> bytes",
+    "cost": 13
+  }