Wildcards (truncation)

Wildcards (truncation characters) let you search for word roots, variations in spelling, many plural forms, etc.

Variable truncation:  Use an asterisk  (*). For example:           

  • sul*ur retrieves  sulfur, sulphur  
  • cat* retrieves  cat, cats, catalyst, catastrophe

A question mark (?) indicates exactly one variable character. For example:

  • sulf?nyl retrieves records that contain words like 'sulfonyl' and 'sulfinyl'
  • catheter? retrieves records that contain words like 'catheters', but not 'catheter' or 'catheterization'

       

Notes:

  • For fastest system performance, specify at least two characters (e.g. ca*); searches with only one truncated character are processed very slowly.
  • For best relevance, type at least three characters before truncating with *.
  • Wildcards (truncation characters) are disabled within phrases (including mapped phrases); ‘heart infarction*’  yields 0 results