Truncation

Truncation (sometimes called wild card searching) allows you to use a symbol (normally *, ? or $) to find search terms where the word stem is the same but the word might have different endings . 

• For example,  smok* will find smoking, smoke, smoker, or smokers.
• Truncation increases the number of results as all variants of your word will be found.

Note. Some databases also allow you to use truncation in the middle of the word. e.g. wom*n will find women and woman.

 

Watch a video

Have a look at this video (1:06) for how to use truncation in your literature search:

Library Search Tips & Tricks: Truncation Links to an external site.

Video transcript (pdf - 36KB).