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Unit 4: Search Methods
Lesson 7: Wildcards
Wildcard searching is a way to find variations within a particular keyword. Use wildcard symbols to locate keywords with irregular plurals and multiple spellings.
To use a wildcard, replace the letter or character of the keyword for which you want to find variations with the symbols #or !. For example, to find records with the search terms women and woman, replace the “e” with the wildcard symbol ?. The search term wom?n will retrieve all records that contain the terms woman and women. Other examples include:
wom!n woman, women
theat! theater, theatre
colo#r color, colour
Wildcard Search Tips:
- Review the Help function of online search tools to learn which symbol to use
- Some online search tools do not support the use of wildcards
- You cannot use a wildcard symbol as the first letter of a search term
- You may use wildcards more than once in the same search string
- Edison College Library’s online catalog uses the wildcards # and !