Asterisk

The Asterisk at U+002A is a Basic Latin punctuation mark shaped like a small star and used to point, qualify, multiply, or stand in for omitted material. In ordinary text it most often marks a footnote, correction, or warning, as in a note keyed from a word to a matching explanation below. In writing and publishing, an asterisk can flag reconstructed or hypothetical forms in linguistics, such as a starred word meaning “not actually attested,” and it can replace letters in censored words. Multiple asterisks may also form a simple section break in plain text. In mathematics and computing, * commonly means multiplication when a true multiplication sign is unavailable, as in 3 * 4, and many programming languages use it for multiplication, pointers, wildcards, repetition, or pattern matching depending on context. In search tools, file names, and command lines, an asterisk often means “any characters,” such as matching all files with a chosen ending. Because it is plain ASCII punctuation, the asterisk is widely available on keyboards and appears in passwords, required-field labels, Markdown emphasis, and chat corrections like “*meant.” Its meaning is highly context-dependent, so the same mark may read as a footnote marker, operator, wildcard, or emphasis signal.