asterisk

3 definitions found

asterisk - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Asterisk \As"ter*isk\, n. [L. asteriscus, Gr. ?, dim. of 'asth`r
     star. See Aster.]
     The figure of a star, thus, ?, used in printing and writing
     as a reference to a passage or note in the margin, to supply
     the omission of letters or words, or to mark a word or phrase
     as having a special character.
     [1913 Webster]

asterisk - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  asterisk
      n 1: a star-shaped character * used in printing [syn:
           asterisk, star]
      v 1: mark with an asterisk; "Linguists star unacceptable
           sentences" [syn: star, asterisk]

asterisk - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  asterisk
  
     <character> "*" ASCII code 42.  Common names include: star;
     INTERCAL: splat; ITU-T: asterisk.  Rare: wild card;
     gear; dingle; mult; spider; aster; times; twinkle; glob;
     Nathan Hale.
  
     Commonly used as the multiplication operator and as the
     Kleene star.  Often doubled, as in "x**2", to mean "to the
     power".  In C and related languages, asterisk is used as the
     dereference operator, "*p" meaning "the thing pointed to by
     p".
  
     (2006-09-10)