Searching: Wildcards
When thinking about keywords, you may come across some which could have variations on the ending of that word, or certain words that are spelt differently depending on the region or dialect. (i.e. US English and UK English)
You can use wildcards symbols to replace word endings, or letters within a word. The search will return all results containing the alternative words.
Wildcards and truncations
In BCU Library Search, wildcards are an asterisk (*) and a question mark (?).
Truncate a word with an asterisk to search for all words that start with the letters before the asterisk.
Replace a letter within a word with a wildcard (?) to search for all possible variations of this letter.
You can use one wildcard or truncation per word.
Examples
The table below contains some examples of truncations and their corresponding equivalents:
| Truncation | Corresponding terms |
|---|---|
| anxiet* | anxiety, anxieties, anxietude |
| theat* | theatre, theatric, theatrical, theatrically, theatricalise, theatricalisation, theatricalism, theatrum, theatre-restaurant ... |
| tire* | tire, tired, tiredness, tiredly, tireless, tirelessly, tirelessness, tiresome, tiresomeness ... |
| colo?r | colour, color |
| *col?r | colour, color, Technicolor, unicolor, Kinemacolor, discolor, protocolar, tubicolar, caracoler, hymenicolar, incoler, papicolar, plebicolar. |
| democrati?e | democratise, democratize |
Wildcards may vary per database. Each database usually has an index of the symbols available, and where they should be used.
If you need help with wildcards, contact us via chat or book a tutorial.