Truncation
If you wish to find variants or both singular and plural, you could replace the end (suffix) of a search term by a symbol. This is called right truncation. The symbols used for this are called wildcards or jokers.
The effect of truncating depends on where in the word you place the symbol.
Generally, an asterisk (*) is used for truncation but occasionally a question mark (?). This may vary per database as could the number of characters which can be replaced by one symbol, for example in PiCarta. Check the help file of the database concerned for further information on this.
Truncation within a single word (internal truncation) is also known as masking.
