Truncation
Truncation allows you to use designated characters to locate all variations based on a root word. Each search system uses different symbols and rules. The following is a summary of truncation syntax for several search systems.
Vendor/Database |
Function |
Symbol |
Example |
Retrieves |
| CONSORT and OhioLINK Catalogs | Right-hand
or embedded truncation of 1-5 characters |
* |
therm* |
thermal thermic thermistor |
pal*ontology |
paleontology palaeontology |
|||
Right-hand-only
truncation, any number of characters |
** |
therm** |
thermistors thermometers thermodynamics |
|
Right-hand
or embedded truncation of a single character |
? |
wom?n |
woman women |
|
apple? |
apples applet |
|||
| Note: There must be a stem of at least two characters to the left of the * or ? trucation symbol. | ||||
| OhioLINK
Research Database BIOSIS Previews Compendex GeoRef INSPEC |
To retrieve all possible endings of a word | $ |
therm$ |
thermal thermic thermistor thermodynamic thermometers |
| EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete AGRICOLA Alt Health Watch CINAHL Plus Computers and Applied Sciences Complete Environment Complete Health Source - Nursing/Academic Edition MEDLINE |
Right-hand truncation to retrieve variant endings of term | * |
comput* |
computation compute computer computing |
| Internal truncation to retieve unknown characters or multiple spellings Each ? replaces a single character | ? |
wom?n |
woman women |
|
| FirstSearch ArticleFirst Papers First Proceedings First |
Right-hand truncation to retrieve plurals by adding -s, or -es To retrieve both singular and plural of words that change form, search both forms combined with OR | + |
rock+ |
rocks |
fox+ |
foxes |
|||
knife
OR knives |
knife knives |
|||
| To retrieve all possible endings of a word | * |
therm* |
thermal thermic thermistor thermodynamics thermometer |
|
| Embedded truncation to retrieve alternate spelling. Each # represents a single character | # |
wom#n |
woman women |
|
