Joker
Truncation

Truncation is like a wildcard. Added to the stem of a word, it will find that stem plus anything that comes after it. It is most useful when searching for both singular and plural versions of a word. The symbol used to truncate a word is usually a ? or a *, but it will depend upon the indexA list of topics referring to a document; can be found in electronic or print formats, databaseA way of electronically organizing information, or search engineAn information retrieval system, such as Google, designed to locate information on the Web. you are using.


psychol?

will return records on psychology, psychological, psychologist, etc.
? is used as the truncation symbol, for example, in the Karrmann Library online catalog.

environ*

will return records on environment, environments, environmental, etc.
* is used as the truncation symbol in the Wilson Web and EBSCOhost electronic databases.
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