diff --git a/bootstrap3.facetview.theme.js b/bootstrap3.facetview.theme.js
index 9df251d..bbe4704 100644
--- a/bootstrap3.facetview.theme.js
+++ b/bootstrap3.facetview.theme.js
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ function searchOptions(options) {
         <button id="btnGroupDrop1" type="button" class="btn btn-custom dropdown-toggle \
         " data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false"> \
         Sort by... <span class="caret"></span></button> <ul class="dropdown-menu" \
-        aria-labelledby="btnGroupDrop1"> <li><a class="dropdown-item facetview_orderby" id="_score" href="_score">Relevance</a></li>';
+        aria-labelledby="btnGroupDrop1">';
 
         for (var each = 0; each < options.search_sortby.length; each++) {
             var obj = options.search_sortby[each];
diff --git a/es.js b/es.js
index 3d94642..fb1eb0d 100644
--- a/es.js
+++ b/es.js
@@ -284,7 +284,8 @@ function elasticSearchQuery(params) {
     var searchfield = options.searchfield;
     var default_operator = options.default_operator;
     var search_fields_multi = options.search_fields_multi;
-    
+    var min_score = options.min_score;
+
     var ftq = undefined;
     if (querystring) {
         ftq = {'query_string' : { 'query': fuzzify(querystring, options.default_freetext_fuzzify) }};
@@ -300,7 +301,11 @@ function elasticSearchQuery(params) {
     } else {
         ftq = {"match_all" : {}}
     }
-    
+
+    if (min_score) {
+      qs['min_score'] = min_score;
+    }
+
     // if there are filter constraints (filter_must) then we create a filtered query,
     // otherwise make a normal query
     var qs = undefined;
diff --git a/jquery.facetview2.js b/jquery.facetview2.js
index 6fe0cde..6ff1053 100644
--- a/jquery.facetview2.js
+++ b/jquery.facetview2.js
@@ -278,6 +278,10 @@ function getUrlVars() {
             // while search_fields_multi sets 'fields'
             "search_fields_multi" : "", // e.g. ["*folded","_all"]
             
+            // minimum score for returned free text query results
+            // usually only necessary if searching a field indexed using an ngram analyzer
+            "min_score" : null,
+
             // freetext search string
             "q" : "",