How does the asterisk (*) work in a search? (2024)

The asterisk is a commonly used wildcard symbol that broadens a search by finding words that start with the same letters. Use it with distinctive word stems to retrieve variations of a term with less typing.

In many databases a wildcard is no longer needed to find variations that are formed by simply adding "s" (e.g., teacher often finds either teacher or teachers). The wildcard is very helpful, however, when you want to retrieve more complex variations. In the search shown below, motivat* will find motivate, motivates, motivation, motivational, etc., and child* will find children as well as child.

Check database online help to identify valid wildcards for specific resources. For example:

• instruct* finds instruct,instructs,instructor, etc., in most databases and OneSearch
• comput! finds compute, computes, computer, computation, etc., in Nexis Unidatabase
• wom?n finds woman or women in most databases and OneSearch

Links & Files

• The Power of WILDCARDS in Research Databases (video; 1:55)

Media