---
title: ICU
description: Splits text according to the Unicode standard
canonical: https://docs.paradedb.com/documentation/tokenizers/available-tokenizers/icu
---

The ICU (International Components for Unicode) tokenizer breaks down text according to the Unicode standard. It can be used to tokenize most languages and recognizes the nuances in word boundaries across different languages.

```sql
CREATE INDEX search_idx ON mock_items
USING bm25 (id, (description::pdb.icu))
WITH (key_field='id');
```

To get a feel for this tokenizer, run the following command and replace the text with your own:

```sql
SELECT 'Hello world! 你好!'::pdb.icu::text[];
```

```ini Expected Response
        text
--------------------
 {hello,world,你好}
(1 row)
```
