The Asterisk is a much wider search gate where many more words can go through. If you type in an Asterisk, it is like saying “Everything is accepted. Everything goes.”
Therefore, if you need to use the Asterisk as a Wild Card, you must assign other restrictions with it.
For example, you may type in:
A* + [enter]
which would yield a list of all dictionary words beginning with the letter “a”.
Or, you may type in:
A*B + [enter]
which would yield 39 hits in all*. However, notice that most of the list is made up of phrases. Therefore, we must add another restriction. Let’s go back to “Set Search Options”  , “Other Options”, and select “Single Words Only”. Now, let’s go back to the main screen and repeat the instruction A*B.
The result now is reduced to 14 hits* .
Now, suppose we want to have a list of all the words in the Dictionary that end in “b”. In this case, we would type in:
*B + [enter]
The result is 207 hits*.
Could we put in an additional restriction and ask for a list of all words ending in “b” but having an “o” before the “b” ? That is, a list of all words from a to z that end in an “ob”? To do that, type in:
*OB + [enter]
The result is 29 hits*.
Note*: The reported number of hits corresponds to the Premier Dictionary. In the PRO dictionary the number will be smaller.
Tip for this week: You may try other different combinations and observe the results. This should give you a very sound basis for making intelligent searches in Word Magic’s dictionary and thus enrich your vocabulary.
|
