diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index f52b9e3d16b..16253c72c59 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@ Features added
 Bugs fixed
 ----------
 
+* #11944: Use anchor in search preview.
+  Patch by Will Lachance.
 * #11668: Raise a useful error when ``theme.conf`` is missing.
   Patch by Vinay Sajip.
 * #11622: Ensure that the order of keys in ``searchindex.js`` is deterministic.
diff --git a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
index 8bb1af5a448..e9a43fa5d3e 100644
--- a/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
+++ b/sphinx/themes/basic/static/searchtools.js
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ const _displayItem = (item, searchTerms, highlightTerms) => {
       .then((data) => {
         if (data)
           listItem.appendChild(
-            Search.makeSearchSummary(data, searchTerms)
+            Search.makeSearchSummary(data, searchTerms, anchor)
           );
         // highlight search terms in the summary
         if (SPHINX_HIGHLIGHT_ENABLED)  // set in sphinx_highlight.js
@@ -160,11 +160,22 @@ const Search = {
   _queued_query: null,
   _pulse_status: -1,
 
-  htmlToText: (htmlString) => {
+  htmlToText: (htmlString, anchor) => {
     const htmlElement = new DOMParser().parseFromString(htmlString, 'text/html');
     htmlElement.querySelectorAll(".headerlink").forEach((el) => { el.remove() });
+    if (anchor) {
+      const anchorContent = htmlElement.querySelector(anchor);
+      if (anchorContent) return anchorContent.textContent;
+
+      console.warn(
+        `Anchor block not found. Sphinx search tries to obtain it via '${anchor}'. Check your theme or template.`
+      );
+    }
+
+    // if anchor not specified or not found, fall back to main content
     const docContent = htmlElement.querySelector('[role="main"]');
     if (docContent) return docContent.textContent;
+
     console.warn(
       "Content block not found. Sphinx search tries to obtain it via '[role=main]'. Could you check your theme or template."
     );
@@ -549,8 +560,8 @@ const Search = {
    * search summary for a given text. keywords is a list
    * of stemmed words.
    */
-  makeSearchSummary: (htmlText, keywords) => {
-    const text = Search.htmlToText(htmlText);
+  makeSearchSummary: (htmlText, keywords, anchor) => {
+    const text = Search.htmlToText(htmlText, anchor);
     if (text === "") return null;
 
     const textLower = text.toLowerCase();
diff --git a/tests/js/searchtools.js b/tests/js/searchtools.js
index c9e0c43d3b2..b70c2d32528 100644
--- a/tests/js/searchtools.js
+++ b/tests/js/searchtools.js
@@ -31,6 +31,38 @@ describe('Basic html theme search', function() {
 
 });
 
+describe("htmlToText", function() {
+
+  const testHTML = `<html>
+  <div class="body" role="main">
+    <section id="getting-started">
+      <h1>Getting Started</h1>
+      <p>Some text</p>
+    </section>
+    <section id="other-section">
+      <h1>Other Section</h1>
+      <p>Other text</p>
+    </section>
+    <section id="yet-another-section">
+      <h1>Yet Another Section</h1>
+      <p>More text</p>
+    </section>
+  </div>
+  </html>`;
+
+  it("basic case", () => {
+    expect(Search.htmlToText(testHTML).trim().split(/\s+/)).toEqual([
+      'Getting', 'Started', 'Some', 'text', 
+      'Other', 'Section', 'Other', 'text', 
+      'Yet', 'Another', 'Section', 'More', 'text'
+    ]);
+  });
+
+  it("will start reading from the anchor", () => {
+    expect(Search.htmlToText(testHTML, '#other-section').trim().split(/\s+/)).toEqual(['Other', 'Section', 'Other', 'text']);
+  });
+});
+
 // This is regression test for https://github.com/sphinx-doc/sphinx/issues/3150
 describe('splitQuery regression tests', () => {
 
