Truncation example:

Truncation means shortening a word. You truncate a word so that the computer will retrieve all forms of the word.

Commonly used truncation symbols are * and ?

Examples:

Sweeten*

Will find:

Sweeten, sweetens, sweetened, sweetener, sweeteners, sweetening, sweetenings

It will NOT find:

sweet, sweets

Be careful in truncation not to shorten a word too much. Three and four letter words (such as car and auto) should not be truncated.

Main page.

Marion Muskiewicz 2/16/00