{{Short description|Typographical symbol (*)}} {{hatnote|{{code|*}} redirects here. For other uses, see Asterisk (disambiguation) and * (disambiguation).}} {{for|the comic book series|Asterix}} {{Infobox symbol |mark=<nowiki>*</nowiki> |name=Asterisk |unicode = {{unichar|2A|Asterisk|html=}} |see also={{unichar|203B|Reference mark |nlink=}} ({{lang|ja-Latn|komejirushi}})<br /> {{unichar|A673|Slavonic asterisk|nlink=Cyrillic Extended-B}} }} {{wiktionary|*|asterisk}} The '''asterisk''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|s|t|ər|ɪ|s|k}}), {{char|'''*'''}}, is a typographical symbol that is a stylised image of a star.<ref name="star-shaped"/>{{efn|There are many other typographical symbols resembling stars with which the asterisk should not be confused.}} An asterisk is usually five- or six-pointed in print and six- or eight-pointed when handwritten, though more complex forms exist. Its most common use is to call out a footnote. It is also often used to censor words considered offensive. It is often vocalized as '''''star''''', especially by computer scientists and mathematicians (as, for example, in ''the A* search algorithm'' or ''C*-algebra'').

==Etymology==

The English term ''asterisk'' is from Late Latin {{lang|la|asteriscus}}, from Ancient Greek {{lang|grc|ἀστερίσκος}}, {{Lang|grc-Latn|asteriskos}}, "little star".<ref name="star-shaped">[https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=asterisk "asterisk"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208070756/https://www.ahdictionary.com/word/search.html?q=asterisk |date=2015-12-08 }}, American Heritage Dictionary</ref><ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Da%29steri%2Fskos ἀστερίσκος] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117092137/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=a)steri/skos |date=2021-01-17 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref>

The word ''asterisk'' is sometimes said as if it were pronounced ''astericks'' or ''asterix'' due to a process called metathesis. Because of this, some people have erroneously inferred that ''astericks'' is the plural of a singular ''asterick.'' A 2014 survey of the Usage Panel of ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' found that 24% of panelists thought the ''asterix'' pronunciation was acceptable and 19% found ''asterick'' to be acceptable. However, only 7% and 6% of panelists preferred the pronunciation of ''asterix'' and ''asterick'' respectively.<ref name="star-shaped" />

==History==

thumb|The asteriskos used in an early Greek papyrus. One hypothesis for the origin of the asterisk used to mark notes is that it stems from the 5,000-year-old Sumerian character dingir, {{char|𒀭}},<ref>Robert Bringhurst, "Asterisk," in ''The Elements of Typographic Style: Version 3.2'' (Vancouver, BC: Hartley & Marks, 2008), 303.</ref> though this hypothesis seems to only be based on visual appearance.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Shady Characters |last=Houston |first=Keith |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-846-14647-3 |page=98}}</ref>

thumb|Early asterisks seen in the margin of Greek papyrus.

The asterisk was one of several symbols developed by scholars of Homeric poetry at the Library of Alexandria over 2,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Maguire |first=Laurie |chapter=The Asterisk; or, the Gnomic Page |date=November 5, 2020 |title=The Rhetoric of the Page |pages=171–236 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/37232/chapter/329592732 |access-date=2025-12-23 |edition=1 |publisher=Oxford University PressOxford |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198862109.003.0004 |isbn=978-0-19-886210-9}}</ref> Zenodotus, the first librarian at the Alexandrian Mouseion, used the obelus, a symbol placed in the margins to indicate a line found to be spurious. A later librarian, Aristophanes, continued the use of the obelus along with other textual notations like a small star for passages that did not make sense.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=West |first1=M. L. |title=Aristophanes of Byzantium’s Text of Homer |journal=Classical Philology |date=2017 |volume=112 |issue=1 |pages=20–44 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26543431 |issn=0009-837X |quote=The statement in sch. γ 71 that he used the asterisk and obelized asterisk to mark passages wrongly duplicated in different places mistakenly ascribes Aristarchus’ practice to him; he used the asterisk to mark lines that appeared not to make sense (frag. 424 Slater |quote-page=42}}</ref> Aristophanes' student and successor, Aristarchus of Samothrace, introduced a formal system of textual criticism marks including the obelus, {{lang|el|asteriskos}}, and several other Aristarchian symbols.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Tautologies and Transpositions: Aristarchus’ Less Known Critical Signs |journal=Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies |issue=57 |date=2017 |pages=607–630 |first=Francesca |last=Schironi |quote=Aristarchus used these critical signs: the obelos (‘spit’), a dash (—) placed next to the lines that he considered suspect but did not want to delete completely from the text, an operation called athetesis. The asteriskos (※) indicated a line repeated elsewhere, and combined with an obelos (※—) it marked repeated lines which were athetized because they were unsuitable in that specific passage. |quote-page=608}}</ref> Aristarchus used the {{lang|el|asteriskos}} to mark lines that were duplicated elsewhere, and the asterisk combined with the obelus to indicate lines considered to be spurious duplications.<ref>Kathleen McNamee, "Sigla," in ''Sigla and Select Marginalia in Greek Literary Papyri'' (Brussels: Fondation Egyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1992), 9.</ref> Origen is known to have later used the asteriskos to mark missing Hebrew lines from his Hexapla.<ref>McNamee, "Sigla," 12.</ref> In the Middle Ages, the asterisk (along with other symbols like the manicule) was used to emphasize a particular part of a text, often linking those parts of the text to a marginal comment.<ref>{{cite book |last=Parkes |chapter=The Technology of Printing and the Stabilization of the Symbols |title=Pause and Effect: An Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West |date=1992 |first=MB |publisher=Routledge |edition=First |isbn=9780859677424 |pages=50-64}}</ref> The asterisk was frequently used to indicate footnotes in the era of print media.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Shady Characters |last=Houston |first=Keith |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-846-14647-3}}</ref>

==Usage==

===Censorship === {{Main article|Wordfilter}}

[[File:Grawlix.jpg|thumb|alt=|Grawlix ending in an asterisk]]

When toning down expletives, asterisks are often used to replace letters. For example, the word "badword" might become "ba***rd", "b*****d", "b******" or even "*******".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Werner |first1=Edgar |title=Englishes Around the World: Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Australasia |date=1997 |page=284}}</ref> Vowels tend to be censored with an asterisk more than consonants, but the intelligibility of censored profanities with multiple syllables such as "b*dw*rd" and "b*****d" or "ba****d", or uncommon ones is higher if put in context with surrounding text.<ref>Wutiolarn, Nopsarun, and Damrong Attaprechakul. A study of nonstandard orthography and vowel omission in an international online game: AuditionSEA. Language Institute, Thammasat University, 2012.</ref> In comics, an entire swear word may be replaced with a grawlix, a string of typographic symbols used to indicate undefined profanity.<ref name="merriam_article">{{Cite web |date=April 18, 2018 |title=What the #@*% Is a 'Grawlix'? |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |website=Merriam-Webster |department=Words We're Watching |url-status=live |access-date=2025-04-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231025033524/https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/grawlix-symbols-swearing-comic-strips |archive-date=2023-10-25}}</ref>

Asterisks are one method used to redact nonpublic information.<ref>{{cite web |title=WISEdash Help: About Data Redaction and Student Privacy |url=https://dpi.wi.gov/wisedash/help/redaction |website=Wisconsin Information System for Education |publisher=Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction |access-date=24 November 2025}}</ref> When a document containing classified information is published, the document may be redacted or "sanitized" by replacing the classified information with asterisks. For example, the Intelligence and Security Committee Russia report.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lomas |first1=Natasha |title=UK gov't asleep at the wheel on Russia cyber ops threat, report warns |url=https://techcrunch.com/2020/07/21/uk-govt-asleep-at-the-wheel-on-russia-cyber-ops-threat-report-warns/ |work=TechCrunch |date=21 July 2020 |quote=Plenty of sections of the report contain a string of asterisk at a crucial point, eliding strategic specifics (e.g. this paragraph on exactly how Russia is targeting critical UK infrastructure: “Russia has also undertaken cyber pre-positioning activity on other nations’ Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has advised that there is *** Russian cyber intrusion into the UK’s CNI – particularly marked in the *** sectors.)”)}}</ref>

===Competitive sports and games=== In colloquial usage,<!-- Before changing this to a more definite wording, a new citation to support that wording will be needed --> an asterisk attached to a sporting record indicates that it is somehow tainted. This is because results that have been considered dubious or set aside are recorded in the record books with an asterisk rendering to a footnote explaining the reason or reasons for concern.<ref>{{cite news|title=An Asterisk is very real, even when it's not |author=Allen Barra |date=2007-05-27|newspaper=New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/weekinreview/27barra.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210204859/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/27/weekinreview/27barra.html |archive-date=10 December 2008}}</ref> During the first decades of the 21st century, the asterisk came to denote a tainted accomplishment, initially due to its use in North American sports records.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ten Years After 756, A Reminder of What Barry Bonds' Record Really Means |url=https://www.si.com/mlb/2017/08/07/barry-bonds-756-home-runs-10-years-asterisk |work=SI |date=7 August 2017}}</ref> This "tainted" usage soon spread to American politics.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Keith |title=Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks |date=17 September 2013 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=978-0-393-24154-9 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Shady_Characters/3R2SAAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=shady+characters+In+an+entirely+different+sphere+of+American+life,+George+W.+Bush&pg=PT76&printsec=frontcover |language=en |at=ch. 6 |chapter=The Asterisk and Dagger |quote="In an entirely different sphere of American life [...]}}</ref>

====Baseball==== [[File:Barry Bonds HR 756* (14387752568).jpg|thumb|alt=|Barry Bonds' 756th* home run baseball at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]] The usage of the term in sports arose during the 1961 baseball season in which Roger Maris of the New York Yankees was threatening to break Babe Ruth's 34-year-old single-season home run record. Ruth had amassed 60 home runs in a season with only 154 games, but Maris was playing the first season in the American League's newly expanded 162-game season. Baseball Commissioner Ford C. Frick, a friend of Ruth's during the legendary slugger's lifetime, held a press conference to announce his "ruling" that should Maris take longer than 154 games both records would be acknowledged by Major League Baseball, but that some "distinctive mark" [his term]<ref name=Salon>{{cite web|last1=Barra|first1=Allen|title=The myth of Maris' asterisk|url=http://www.salon.com/2001/10/03/asterisk/|work=Salon.com|access-date=November 15, 2014|date=October 3, 2001|archive-date=April 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210412134133/https://www.salon.com/2001/10/03/asterisk/|url-status=live}}</ref> be placed next to Maris', which should be listed alongside Ruth's achievement in the "record books". The asterisk as such a mark was suggested at that time by New York Daily News sportswriter Dick Young, not Frick.<ref name=Salon/> The reality, however, was that MLB had no direct control over any record books until many years later, and it all was merely a suggestion on Frick's part. Within a few years the controversy died down and all prominent baseball record keepers listed Maris as the single-season record holder for as long as he held the record.<ref name=Salon/>

Nevertheless, the stigma of holding a tainted record remained with Maris for many years, and the concept of a real or figurative asterisk denoting less-than-accepted "official" records has become widely used in sports and other competitive endeavors. A 2001 TV movie about Maris's record-breaking season was called ''61*'' (pronounced ''sixty-one asterisk'') in reference to the controversy.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Salfino |first1=Michael |title=Roger Maris jersey worn in ‘asterisk game’ of his 61 home run season going to auction |url=https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6277362/2025/04/14/roger-maris-jersey-61/ |work=The New York Times |date=14 April 2025}}</ref>

Uproar over the integrity of baseball records and whether or not qualifications should be added to them arose again in the late 1990s, when a steroid-fueled power explosion led to the shattering of Maris' record. Even though it was obvious - and later admitted<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=4816607|title=McGwire comes clean, admits steroids use|date=January 11, 2010|website=ESPN.com|access-date=September 5, 2019|archive-date=January 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123210850/http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=4816607|url-status=live}}</ref> - by Mark McGwire that he was heavily on steroids when he hit 70 home runs in 1998, ruling authorities did nothing - to the annoyance of many fans and sportswriters. Three years later self-confessed steroid-user Barry Bonds pushed that record out to 73, and fans once again began to call for an asterisk in the sport's record books.

Fans were especially critical and clamored louder for baseball to act during the 2007 season, as Bonds approached and later broke Hank Aaron's career home run record of 755.<ref>{{cite news|title=''Tarnished records deserve an Asterisk''|author=Michael Wilbon|date=2004-12-04|newspaper=Washington Post|page=D10|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33718-2004Dec3.html|access-date=2017-08-24|archive-date=2018-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180419091356/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33718-2004Dec3.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The Houston Astros' 2017 World Series win was marred after an investigation by MLB revealed the team's involvement in a sign-stealing scheme during that season. Fans, appalled by what they perceived to be overly lenient discipline against the Astros players, nicknamed the team the "Houston Asterisks".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2020/02/17/lets-call-them-the-houston-asterisks/#5066794640c9|title=Let's Call Them the Houston Asterisks|website=Forbes|access-date=2020-08-26|archive-date=2020-10-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003062529/https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbaldoni/2020/02/17/lets-call-them-the-houston-asterisks/#5066794640c9|url-status=live}}</ref>

====Cricket==== The asterisk has several uses in cricket: * It signifies a total number of runs scored by a batsman without losing their wicket; e.g. "107*" means "107 not out". * Where only the scores of the two batsmen that are currently in are being shown, an asterisk following a batsman's score indicates that he is due to face the next ball to be delivered. * When written before a player's name on a scorecard, it indicates the captain of the team. * It is also used on television when giving a career statistic during a match. For example, "47*" in a number of matches column means that the current game is the player's 47th.

===Computing=== In computer science, the asterisk is commonly used as a wildcard character, or to denote pointers, repetition, or multiplication.

* In regular expressions, the asterisk is used to denote zero or more repetitions of a pattern; this use is also known as the ''Kleene star'' or ''Kleene closure'' after Stephen Kleene. * In Unified Modeling Language, the asterisk is used to denote zero to many classes. * In some command line interfaces, such as the Unix shell and Microsoft's CMD, the asterisk is the ''wildcard character'' (or wildcard symbol) and stands for any string of characters. A common use of the wildcard is in searching for files on a computer. For instance, if a user wished to find a document called <code>Document&nbsp;1</code>, search terms such as <code>Doc*</code> and <code>D*ment*</code> would return this file. Due to being a wildcard, they could also return files like <code>Document 2</code> and (only the latter) <code>Dark Knight Monument.jpg</code>. <code>Document*</code> would in fact return any file that begins with <code>Document</code>, and <code>D*ment*</code> any file that began with D and had 'ment' somewhere in its name. * In some graphical user interfaces, an asterisk is pre- or affixed to the current working document name shown in a window's title bar to indicate that unsaved changes exist. * In many computing and Internet applications, an asterisk is displayed in place of the characters of sensitive or confidential visible information, such as a password. * In Commodore (and related) file systems, an asterisk appearing next to a filename in a directory listing denotes an improperly closed file, commonly called a "splat file". * In travel industry Global Distribution Systems, the asterisk is the display command to retrieve all or part of a Passenger Name Record. * In HTML web forms, a (usually red) asterisk can be used to denote required fields. * Chat room etiquette calls on one asterisk to correct a misspelled word or typo that has already been submitted. For example, one could post <code>lck</code>, then follow it with <code>*luck</code> or <code>luck*</code> (the placement of the * on the left or right is a matter of personal style) to correct the word's spelling, or if it's someone else that notices the mistake, they might also use <code>*luck</code> or <code>luck*</code>.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |last1=Collister |first1=Lauren B. |date=2011-02-01 |title=*-repair in Online Discourse |url=http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/20621/1/Star-Repair_in_Online_Discourse_-_Author_Accepted_Version.pdf |journal=Journal of Pragmatics |volume=43 |issue=3 |pages=918–921 |doi=10.1016/j.pragma.2010.09.025 |access-date=2018-05-31 |archive-date=2017-09-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922010832/http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/20621/1/Star-Repair_in_Online_Discourse_-_Author_Accepted_Version.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> This also applies to typos that result in a different word from the intended one but are correctly spelled. * In comics, enclosing a word or phrase between two asterisks is used to denote an action the subject is "performing", e.g. <code>*cough*</code>.<ref>{{cite website |last = Zimmer |first = Ben |url = https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466 |title = The cyberpragmatics of bounding asterisks |date = 7 February 2013 |url-status=live |access-date = 16 August 2025 |website = Language Log |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20250816133216/https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466 |archive-date = 16 August 2025 |language = en}}</ref>{{better source|reason=a forum discussion, albeit at a university, is not a wp:RS|date=August 2025}} * In Markdown and other markup languages, surrounding a set of characters or words in one asterisk italicizes, two asterisks bolds, and three asterisks both italicizes and bolds.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-04-16 |title=Markdown Guide - Basic Syntax: Emphasis |url=https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/#emphasis |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240413065626/https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/#emphasis |archive-date=2024-04-13 |access-date=2024-04-16 |website=Markdown Guide |language=en}}</ref> See the table below for examples of all three uses of the asterisk in Markdown, including how it translates to HTML and how it renders. {| class="wikitable" |- !Markdown |{{code|2=md|Italicized text is the *cat's meow*.}} |{{code|2=md|I just love **bold text**.}} |{{code|2=md|This text is ***really important***.}} |- !HTML |{{code|2=html|Italicized text is the <em>cat's meow</em>.}} |{{code|2=html|I just love <strong>bold text</strong>.}} |{{code|2=html|This text is <em><strong>really important</strong></em>.}} |- !Rendered Output |Italicized text is the ''cat's meow''. |I just love '''bold text'''. |This text is '''''really important'''''. |}

==== Adding machines and printing calculators ==== * Some models of adding machines and printing calculators use the asterisk to denote the ''total'', or the terminal sum or difference of an addition or subtraction sequence, respectively. The symbol is sometimes given on the printout to indicate this total.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

====Programming languages==== Many programming languages and calculators use the asterisk as a symbol for multiplication. It also has a number of special meanings in specific languages, for instance: * In some languages such as C, C++, Rust and Go, the asterisk is used to dereference or declare a pointer variable. * In Common Lisp, the names of global variables are conventionally set off with asterisks, <code>*LIKE-THIS*</code>. * In Ada, Fortran, Perl, Python, Ruby, some dialects of Pascal, and many others, a double asterisk is used to signify exponentiation: <code>5**3</code> is 5<sup>3</sup> = 125. * In Perl, the asterisk is used to refer to the ''typeglob'' of all variables with a given name. * In Ruby and Python, the asterisk has two specific uses. First, the unary * operator applied to a list object inside a function call will expand that list into the positional arguments of the function call. Second, a parameter preceded by * {{anchor|args}}in the parameter list in a function definition will result in any extra positional parameters being aggregated into a tuple (Python) or array (Ruby), and likewise a parameter preceded by ** {{Anchor|kwargs}} will result in any extra keyword parameters being aggregated into a dictionary (Python) or hash (Ruby). An example in Python 3: <syntaxhighlight lang="python">

def function1(a, b, c, d): print(a, b, c, d) def function2(first, *args): # args will be a tuple # the name 'args' is convention: it may be any parameter name print(args) def function3(first, **kwargs): # kwargs will be a dict # the name 'kwargs' is convention: it may be any parameter name print(kwargs)

function1(1, 2, 3, 4) # prints 1 2 3 4 function1(*[1, 2, 3, 4]) # prints 1 2 3 4 function1(**{"a": 5, "b": 6, "c": 7, "d": 8}) # prints 5 6 7 8

function2(1, 2, 3, 4) # prints (2, 3, 4), 1 is not part of args function2(99) # prints (), unfilled *parameter will be ()

function3(0, e = 3, f = 9) # prints {'e': 3, 'f': 9}, 0 is not part of kwargs function3(0) # prints {}, unfilled **parameter will be {} </syntaxhighlight> * In APL, the asterisk represents the exponential and exponentiation functions, with <code>*X</code> representing <var>e</var><sup><var>X</var></sup>, and <code>Y*X</code> representing <var>Y</var><sup><var>X</var></sup>. * In IBM Job Control Language, the asterisk has various functions, including in-stream data in the DD statement, the default print stream as <code>SYSOUT=*</code>, and as a self-reference in place of a procedure step name to refer to the same procedure step where it appears. * In Haskell, the asterisk represents the set of well-formed, fully applied types; that is, a 0-ary ''kind'' of types.

=====Comments in programming languages===== {{Main article|block comments}} In the B programming language and languages that borrow syntax from it, such as C, PHP, Java, or C#, comments in the source code (for information to people, ignored by the compiler) are marked by an asterisk combined with the slash:

<syntaxhighlight lang="c#"> /* This section displays message if user input was not valid (comment ignored by compiler) */ </syntaxhighlight>

CSS also uses this comment format:<syntaxhighlight lang="css"> body { /* This ought to make the text more readable for far-sighted people */ font-size: 24pt; } </syntaxhighlight>

Some Pascal-like programming languages, such as Object Pascal, Modula-2, Modula-3, and Oberon, and other languages such as ML, Wolfram Language (Mathematica), AppleScript, OCaml, Standard ML, and Maple, use an asterisk combined with a parenthesis:

<syntaxhighlight lang="Applescript"> (* Do not change this variable - it is used later (comment ignored by compiler) *) </syntaxhighlight>

Each computing language has its own way of handling comments; {{code|/* ... */}} and similar notations are not universal.

====History of information technology==== The asterisk was a supported symbol on the IBM 026 Keypunch (introduced in 1949 and used to create punch cards with data for early computer systems).<ref>{{Cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110620214024if_/http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/026.html |archive-date=20 June 2011 |title=the IBM 026 Key Punch |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/026.html |url-status=dead |publisher=Columbia University}}</ref> It was also included in the FIELDATA character encoding<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nssdc/formats/UnisysFieldata.htm|title="Univac Fieldata Codes"}}</ref> and the ASCII standard.<ref>{{Cite web |title=WPS:Projects:History of character codes:X3.4 1963 |url=https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Archive/CharCodeHist/X3.4-1963/index.html |access-date=2023-11-18 |website=www.sensitiveresearch.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sensitiveresearch.com/Archive/CharCodeHist/X3.4-1963/page5.JPG|title=American Standard Code for Information Interchange (page 5)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=X3 |first=American Standards Association Sectional Committee on Computers and Information Processing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zXzEGwAACAAJ |title=American Standard Code for Information Interchange: Sponsor: Business Equipment Manufacturers Association. Approved June 17, 1963 |date=1963 |language=en}}</ref>

===Economics=== * In economics, the use of an asterisk superscript indicates that the variable such as price, output, or employment is at its optimal level (that which is achieved in a perfect market situation). For instance, <math>p^*</math> is the price level <math>p</math> when output <math>y</math> is at its corresponding optimal level of <math>y^*</math>. * Also in international economics asterisks are commonly used to denote economic variables in a foreign country. So, for example, <math>p</math> is the price of the home good and <math>p^*</math> is the price of the foreign good, etc.

===Education=== * In the A-Level examinations in the United Kingdom and the PSLE in Singapore, A* ("''A''-star") is a special top grade that is distinguished from grade A. * In the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) examination in Hong Kong, 5** (5-star-star) and 5* (5-star) are two special top grades that are distinguished from Level 5. Level 5** is the highest level a candidate can attain in HKDSE.

===Fluid mechanics=== In fluid mechanics an asterisk in superscript is sometimes used to mean a property at sonic speed.<ref>White, F. M. Fluid Mechanics, Fourth Ed. WCB McGraw Hill.</ref>

===Games===<!-- This section is linked from Splat (pronouns) --> *Certain categories of character types in role-playing games are called '''splats''', and the game supplements describing them are called '''splatbooks'''. This usage originated with the shorthand "*book" for this type of supplement to various World of Darkness games, such as ''Clanbook: Ventrue'' (for ''Vampire: The Masquerade'') or ''Tribebook: Black Furies'' (for ''Werewolf: The Apocalypse''), and this usage has spread to other games with similar character-type supplements. For example, ''Dungeons & Dragons'' Third Edition has had several lines of splatbooks: the "X & Y" series including ''Sword & Fist'' and ''Tome & Blood'' prior to the "3.5" revision, the "Complete X" series including ''Complete Warrior'' and ''Complete Divine'', and the "Races of X" series including ''Races of Stone'' and ''Races of the Wild''. *In Magic: The Gathering, an asterisk is used on a creature's power and/or toughness when it's a variable amount. *In many MUDs and MOOs, as well as "male", "female", and other more esoteric genders, there is a gender called "splat", which uses an asterisk to replace the letters that differ in standard English gender pronouns. For example, ''h*'' is used rather than ''him'' or ''her''. Also, asterisks are used to signify doing an action, for example, "*''action''*". *Game show producer Mark Goodson used a six-pointed asterisk as his trademark. It is featured prominently on many set pieces from ''The Price Is Right.'' *Scrabble players put an asterisk after a word to indicate that an illegal play was made.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tucsonscrabble.com/articles/glossary.html|title=Scrabble Glossary|publisher=Tucson Scrabble Club|access-date=2012-02-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110830073348/http://www.tucsonscrabble.com/articles/glossary.html|archive-date=2011-08-30|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Human genetics=== *In human genetics, * is used to denote that someone is a member of a haplogroup and not any of its subclades (see * (haplogroup)).

===Linguistics=== {{anchor|Linguistics}} In linguistics, an asterisk may be used for a range of purposes depending on what is being discussed. The symbol is used to indicate reconstructed words that are not attested for in surviving texts, including words of proto-languages. For modern languages, it may be placed before posited problematic word forms, phrases or sentences to flag that they are hypothetical, ungrammatical, unpronounceable, etc.{{citation needed|date=March 2026}}

Historical linguist August Schleicher is cited as first using the asterisk for linguistic purposes, specifically for unattested forms that are linguistic reconstructions.<ref name="Golla"/>{{rp|208}}

Using the asterisk for descriptive and not just historical purposes arose in the 20th century.<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|334}} By analogy with its use in historical linguistics, the asterisk was variously prepended to "hypothetical" or "unattested" elements in modern language.<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|332}} Its usage also expanded to include "non-existent" or "impossible" forms. Leonard Bloomfield (1933) uses the asterisk with forms such as ''*cran,'' impossible to occur in isolation: ''cran-'' only occurs within the compound ''cranberry''.<ref name="Bloomfield"/>{{rp|160}}<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|331}} Such usage for a "non-existent form" was also found in French, German and Italian works in the middle of the 20th century.<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|332–34}}

Asterisk usage in linguistics later came to include not just impossible forms, but "ungrammatical sentences", those that are "ill formed for the native speaker".<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|332}} The expansion of asterisk usage to entire sentences is often credited to Noam Chomsky, but Chomsky in 1968 already describes this usage as "conventional".<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|330}} Linguist Fred Householder claims some credit,<ref name="Householder"/>{{rp|365}}<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|331}} but Giorgio Graffi argues that using an asterisk for this purpose predates his works.<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|336}}{{efn|''"...Chomsky adopted, with some delay, a convention which had been (possibly) circulated among generative grammarians by Householder. However, Householder (who was not a generative grammarian) was simply following a practice which had already been introduced by others, and which was so automatic as to be adopted almost unconsciously."''<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|336}}}}

The meaning of the asterisk usage in specific linguistic works may go unelucidated so can be unclear.<ref name="Householder"/>{{rp|369}}{{efn|The numerous and confusing uses are detailed in Householder (1973).<ref name="Householder"/>}} Linguistics sometimes uses double asterisks ({{code|**}}), another symbol such as the question mark, or both symbols (e.g. {{code|?*}}) to indicate degrees of unacceptability.<ref name="Householder"/>{{rp|369}}

==== Historical linguistics ==== In historical linguistics, the asterisk marks words or phrases that are not directly recorded in texts or other media, and that are therefore reconstructed on the basis of other linguistic material by the comparative method.<ref>{{cite web | url= https://thelanguagenerds.com/how-do-we-know-that-proto-indo-european-actually-existed/ | title= Here is how linguists know that extinct languages existed | website= thelanguagenerds.com | access-date= 21 August 2020 | archive-date= 18 August 2020 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200818190807/https://thelanguagenerds.com/how-do-we-know-that-proto-indo-european-actually-existed/ | url-status= dead }}</ref>

In the following example, the Proto-Germanic word {{lang|gem-x-proto|ainlif}} is a reconstructed form. * {{lang|gem-x-proto|*ainlif}} → {{wikt-lang|ang|endleofan}} → ''eleven''

A double asterisk ({{code|**}}) sometimes indicates an intermediary or proximate reconstructed form (e.g. a single asterisk for reconstructed thirteenth century Chinese and a double asterisk for reconstructions of older Ancient Chinese<ref name="Cheng"/>{{rp|5}} or a double asterisk for proto-Popolocan and a single asterisk for intermediary forms<ref name="Veerman"/>{{rp|322}}).

In other cases, the double asterisk denotes a form that would be expected according to a rule, but is not actually found. That is, it indicates a reconstructed form that is not found or used, and in place of which ''another'' form is found in actual usage: * For the plural, *{{lang|ar-Latn|*kubar}} would be expected, but separate masculine plural {{lang|ar-Latn|akābir}} {{wikt-lang|ar|أكابر}} and feminine plural {{lang|ar-Latn|kubrayāt}} {{wikt-lang|ar|كبريات}} are found as irregular forms.

==== Ungrammaticality ==== {{Anchor|Generative linguistics|Grammaticality asterisk}} In most areas of linguistics, but especially in syntax, an asterisk in front of a word or phrase indicates that the word or phrase is not used because it is ungrammatical.<ref name="Graffi"/>{{rp|332}} *wake her up / *wake up her An asterisk before a parenthesis indicates that the lack of the word or phrase inside is ungrammatical, while an asterisk after the opening bracket of the parenthesis indicates that the existence of the word or phrase inside is ungrammatical—e.g., the following indicates "go the station" would be ungrammatical: *go *(to) the station

Use of an asterisk to denote forms or sentences that are ungrammatical is often complemented by the use of the question mark ({{code|?}}) to indicate a word, phrase or sentence that is avoided, questionable or strange, but not necessarily outright ungrammatical.{{efn|One article notes succinctly that ''"...common practice in linguistics [is that] an asterisk preceding a word, a clause or a sentence is used to indicate ungrammaticality or unacceptability, while a question mark is used to indicate questionable usage"'',<ref name="Xu"/>{{rp|15}} another that, ''"A question mark indicates that the example is marginal; an asterisk indicates unacceptability"''<ref name="Simons"/>{{rp|409}} and another that ''"examples preceded by an asterisk are ungrammatical, and those preceded by a question mark would be considered strange"''.<ref name="Everett"/>{{rp|623}}}}

Other sources go further and use several symbols (e.g. the asterisk, question mark, and degree symbol {{code|°}}) to indicate gradations or a continuum of acceptability.{{efn|One example is ''"rough approximations of acceptability are given in four gradations and indicated as follows: normal and preferred, no mark; acceptable but not preferred, degree sign {{code|°}}; marginally acceptable, question mark ({{code|?}}); unacceptable, asterisk ({{code|*}})."''<ref name="Timberlake"/>{{rp|123–24}}}}

===== Ambiguity ===== Since a word marked with an asterisk could mean either "unattested" or "impossible", it is important in some contexts to distinguish these meanings. In general, authors retain asterisks for "unattested", and prefix <sup>{{code|x}}</sup>, {{code|**}}, {{code|†}}, or {{code|?}} for the latter meaning.{{efn|For example, one linguistic article states that, ''"A question mark ({{code|?}}) denotes uncertainty; an asterisk ({{code|*}}) indicates a classificatory base not encountered in my own data."''<ref name="Benton"/>{{rp|119}}}} An alternative is to append the asterisk (or another symbol, possibly to differentiate between even more cases) at the end.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

====Optimality theory==== In optimality theory, asterisks are used as "violation marks" in tableau cells to denote a violation of a constraint by an output form.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=McCarthy |first1=John J. |title=What Is Optimality Theory? |journal=Language and Linguistics Compass |date=2007 |volume=1 |issue=4 |page=268 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00018.x |url=http://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs/93/ |access-date=2017-05-02 |archive-date=2017-04-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403103350/http://scholarworks.umass.edu/linguist_faculty_pubs/93/ |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==== Phonetic transcription ==== In phonetic transcription using the International Phonetic Alphabet and similar systems, an asterisk was historically used to denote that the word it preceded was a proper noun.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=International Phonetic Association|title=''The Principles of the International Phonetic Association'' (1949)|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association|date=2010|volume=40|issue=3|page=317|doi=10.1017/S0025100311000089|s2cid=232345365|url=http://archive.org/details/principlesofinte00inteuoft|hdl=2027/wu.89001200120|hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Vachek |first1=Josef |editor1-last=Luelsdorff |editor1-first=Philip A. |title=Written Language Revisited |date=1989 |publisher=John Benjamins |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZC2mKVQXk_sC&pg=PA152 |chapter=Remarks on redundancy in written language with special regard to capitalization of graphemes |doi=10.1075/z.41 |orig-date=1987 |page=152|isbn=978-90-272-2064-6 }}</ref> See this example from W. Perrett's 1921 transcription of Gottfried Keller's {{lang|de|Das Fähnlein der sieben Aufrechten}}:<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Perrett|first1=W.|title={{IPA|dɔytʃ}}|journal=Textes pour nos Élèves|date=1921|volume=1|page=4|publisher=Association Phonétique Internationale |hdl=2027/wu.89048935472?urlappend=%3Bseq=8 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> :{{IPA|ˈkɑinə ˈreːdə}}, {{IPA|virt ˈniçts daˈraˑus}}! {{IPA|zɑːktə *ˈheːdigər ˈkurts}}. :(''{{lang|de|»Keine Rede, wird nichts daraus!« sagte Hediger kurz.}}'')

This convention is no longer usual.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pullum|first1=Geoffrey K.|last2=Ladusaw|first2=William A.|title=Phonetic Symbol Guide|date=1996|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago|page=228|edition=2nd|chapter=Asterisk}}</ref>

===Mathematics=== The asterisk has many uses in mathematics. The following list highlights some common uses and is not exhaustive.

;stand-alone: * An arbitrary point in some set. Seen, for example, when computing Riemann sums or when contracting a simply connected group to the singleton set <math>\{\ast\}</math>. ;as a unary operator, denoted in prefix notation: * The Hodge star operator on vector spaces <math>*: A^k \rightarrow A^{n-k}</math>. ;as a unary operator, written as a subscript: * The pushforward (differential) of a smooth map <math>f</math> between two smooth manifolds, denoted <math>f_*</math>. * And more generally the application of any covariant functor, where no doubt exists over which functor is meant. ;as a unary operator, written as a superscript: * The complex conjugate of a complex number (the more common notation is <math>\bar{z}</math>).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ComplexConjugate.html |title=Complex Conjugate - from Wolfram MathWorld |publisher=Mathworld.wolfram.com |date=2018-09-12 |access-date=2018-09-18 |archive-date=2018-10-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181022122115/http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ComplexConjugate.html |url-status=live }}</ref> * The conjugate in a composition algebra * The conjugate transpose, Hermitian transpose, or adjoint matrix of a matrix. * Hermitian adjoint. * The multiplicative group of the units of a ring; when the ring is a field, this is the group of all nonzero elements. For example, <math>\mathbb{C}^* = \mathbb{C}\setminus\{0\}.</math> * The dual space of a vector space <math>V</math>, denoted <math>V^*</math>. * The combination of an indexed collection of objects into one example, e.g. the combination of all the cohomology groups <math>H^k(X)</math> into the cohomology ring <math>H^*(X)</math>. * The reflexive transitive closure of a binary relation. * In statistics, <math>z^*</math> and <math>t^*</math> are given critical points for <math>z</math>-distributions and <math>t</math>-distributions, respectively. ;as a binary operator, in infix notation: * A notation for an arbitrary binary operator. * The free product of two groups. * <math>f \ast g</math> is a convolution of <math>f</math> with <math>g</math>. * A notation for the horizontal composition of two natural transformations. * A notation to denote a parallel sum of two operands (most authors, however, instead use a <math>:</math> or <math>\parallel</math> sign for this purpose).

The asterisk is used in all branches of mathematics to designate a correspondence between two quantities denoted by the same letter – one with the asterisk and one without.

====Mathematical typography==== In fine mathematical typography, the Unicode character {{unichar|2217|asterisk operator}} (in HTML, &amp;lowast;; not to be confused with {{unichar|204e|low asterisk}}) is available. This character also appeared in the position of the regular asterisk in the PostScript symbol character set in the ''Symbol'' font included with Windows and Macintosh operating systems and with many printers.{{citation needed|date=August 2024}} It should be used for a large asterisk that lines up with the other mathematical operators, sitting on the math centerline rather than on the text baseline.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Unicode Standard |edition=15.0 |chapter=Chapter 22: Symbols |pages=877-878 |year=2022 |url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode15.0.0/ch22.pdf |author=Unicode Consortium}}</ref>

===Music=== * In musical notation the sign 20px ({{unichar|1D1AF|MUSICAL SYMBOL PEDAL UP MARK}}) indicates when the sustain pedal of the piano should be lifted. * In liturgical music, an asterisk is often used to denote a deliberate pause.

===Religious texts=== *In the Geneva Bible and the King James Bible, an asterisk is used to indicate a marginal comment or scripture reference. *In the Leeser Bible, an asterisk is used to mark off the seven subdivisions of the weekly Torah portion. It is also used to mark the few verses to be repeated by the reader of the Haftara. *In American printings of the ''Book of Common Prayer'', an asterisk is used to divide a verse of a Psalm in two portions for responsive reading. British printings use a spaced colon (" : ") for the same purpose.<ref>Thomas MacKellar: ''The American Printer: A Manual of Typography: containing complete instructions for beginners, as well as practical directions for managing all departments of a printing office.'' MacKellar, Smiths & Jordan, Philadelphia 1870, p. 55 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=T-0YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA55 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164814/https://books.google.com/books?id=T-0YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA55 |date=2023-03-26 }}).</ref> *In pointed psalms, an asterisk is used to denote a break or breath.

===Star of Life=== [[File:Star of life2.svg|thumb|The Star of Life may represent emergency medical services ]] A Star of Life, a six-bar asterisk overlaid with the Rod of Asclepius (the symbol of health), may be used as an alternative to cross or crescent symbols on ambulances.

===Statistical results=== In many scientific publications,{{which|date=April 2026}} the asterisk is employed as a shorthand to denote the statistical significance of results when testing hypotheses. When the likelihood that a result occurred by chance alone is below a certain level, one or more asterisks are displayed. Popular significance levels are <0.05 (*), <0.01 (**), and <0.001 (***).{{cn|date=April 2026}}

===Telephony <span class="anchor" id="Star key"></span>=== {{further|E.161}} <!--*****

DO *NOT* ADD THE ASTERISK PBX HERE. IT IS REFERENCED VIA THE DISAMBIG AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE, AND THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT THE SYMBOL ITSELF, NOT THINGS NAMED AFTER IT

*****--> On a tone dialling telephone keypad, the ''star key'' is one of the two special keys (the other is the ''square key''{{snd}} almost invariably replaced by the number sign {{char|#}} (called 'pound sign' (US), 'hash' (other countries), or 'hex'), and is found to the left of the zero<ref name=p>{{Cite web |title=E.161 : Arrangement of digits, letters and symbols on telephones and other devices that can be used for gaining access to a telephone network|url=https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-E.161|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191114053110/https://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-E.161|archive-date=2019-11-14|access-date=2025-12-15|website=www.itu.int}}</ref>). For the star key, the International Telecommunication Union recommends {{unichar|26B9|nlink=}} (in E.161).<ref name=p /> The Unicode Consortium suggests {{unichar|2217|nlink=}} as a valid alternative usage of that character<ref>{{cite web |title=Miscellaneous mathematical symbols |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/n_2200.html |publisher=Unicode Consortium}}</ref> They are used to navigate menus in systems such as voice mail, or in vertical service codes and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD; quick codes/feature codes).

=== Typography === {{more citations needed|section|date=April 2020}} * The asterisk is used to call out a footnote, especially when there is only one on the page. Less commonly, multiple asterisks are used to denote different footnotes on a page (i.e., *, **, ***).<ref>H. P. Trueman: ''The Eclectic Hand-book of Printing: Containing Practical Instructions to Learners; With Copious Quotations from Standard Works; Forming a Complete Guide to the Art of Printing.'' Second edition, Abel Heywood & Son, London 1880, p. 27 [https://books.google.com/books?id=sCMxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA27 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164814/https://books.google.com/books?id=sCMxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA27 |date=2023-03-26 }}),</ref><ref name="Rogers, 184">Walter Thomas Rogers: ''A Manual of Bibliography: Being an Introduction to the Knowledge of Books, Library Management and the Art of Cataloguing, with a List of Bibliographical Works of Reference, a Latin-English and English-Latin Topographical Index of Ancient Printing Centres, and a Glossary.'' H. Grevel & Co., London 1891, p. 184 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=tqsQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA184 Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164814/https://books.google.com/books?id=tqsQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA184 |date=2023-03-26 }}).</ref> Typically, an asterisk is positioned after a word or phrase and preceding its accompanying footnote. Other characters are also used for this purpose, such as dagger (†, ‡) or superscript letters and numbers (as in Wikipedia). In marketing and advertising, asterisks or other symbols are used to refer readers discreetly to terms or conditions for a certain statement, the "small print". * In English-language typography the asterisk is placed after all other punctuation marks (for example, commas, colons, or periods) except for the dash.<ref>{{Citation |author= United Nations Editorial Manual Online |title= IX. Footnote indicators |url= http://dd.dgacm.org/editorialmanual/ed-guidelines/footnotes/footnotes_chap_09.htm |access-date= 2016-10-03 |archive-date= 2016-10-05 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161005112738/http://dd.dgacm.org/editorialmanual/ed-guidelines/footnotes/footnotes_chap_09.htm |url-status= live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |author=Fogarty, Mignon |title="How to Use an Asterisk," QuickandDirtyTips.com |url=http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-to-use-an-asterisk/ |date=November 15, 2012 |access-date=October 3, 2016 |archive-date=October 5, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005195751/http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/how-to-use-an-asterisk |url-status=live }}</ref> [[File:Section break 02 by Pengo.jpg|thumb|Asterisks used to illustrate a section break in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'']] * Three spaced asterisks centered on a page is called a dinkus and may represent a jump to a different scene, thought, or section. * A group of three asterisks arranged in a triangular formation is called an asterism. It may be used instead of a name on a title page.<ref name="Rogers, 184" /> * One or more asterisks may be used as censorship over all or part of a word. * Asterisks are sometimes used as an alternative to typographical bullets to indicate items of a list. * Asterisks can be used in textual media to represent *emphasis* when bold or italic text is not available (e.g., Twitter, text messaging). * Asterisks may denote conversational repair, or corrections to misspelling or misstatements in previous electronic messages, particularly when replacement or retraction of a previous writing is not possible, such as with "immediate delivery" messages or "instant messages" that can not be edited. Usually this takes the form of a message consisting solely of the corrected text, with an asterisk placed before (or after) the correction. For example, one might send a message reading "*morning" or "morning*" to correct the misspelling in the message "I had a good {{Typo|mro|ning}}".<ref name=":0" />{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} * Bounding asterisks as "a kind of self-describing stage direction", as linguist Ben Zimmer has put it. For example, in "''Another gas station robbery *sigh*''", the writer uses *sigh* to express disappointment (but does not necessarily literally sigh).<ref>{{cite web |last=Zimmer |first=Ben |title=The cyberpragmatics of bounding asterisks |url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466 |work=Language Log, University of Pennsylvania |access-date=24 August 2013 |archive-date=14 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130914011937/http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466 |url-status=live }}</ref> * Bounding asterisks can also represent an action in online situations where they aren't shown.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Halley |first=Mitch |title=descriptions of internet English punctuation |url=https://www.seximal.net/punctuation |access-date=2025-05-31 |website=seximal.net |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Unique uses in other languages ===

==== German ==== {{Excerpt|Gender star}}

==Encodings== {{further|Star (grapheme)}} The Unicode standard has a variety of asterisk-like characters, compared in the table below. (Characters will display differently in different browsers and fonts.) The reason there are so many is chiefly because of the controversial{{citation needed|date=June 2022}} decision to include in Unicode the entire Zapf Dingbats symbol font.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" cellpadding="10" |- ! Asterisk !! Asterisk operator !! Heavy asterisk !! Small asterisk !! Full-width asterisk !! Open-centre asterisk |- style="font-size: 6em;" | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |* | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |∗ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |✱ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |﹡ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |＊ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |✲ |}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" cellpadding="10" ! Low asterisk !! Arabic star !! East Asian reference mark !! Teardrop-spoked asterisk !! Sixteen-pointed asterisk |- style="font-size: 6em;" | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |⁎ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |٭ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |※ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |✻ | style="padding:15pt; padding-top:30pt;" class="Unicode" |✺ |}

===In Unicode=== * {{unichar|002A|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|0359|html=|nlink=|cwith=}}͙ * {{unichar|066D||html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|203B|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2055|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2042|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|204E|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2051|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|20F0|html=|nlink=|cwith=}} * {{unichar|2217|html=|nlink=}} May be used as the star key (telephony)<ref>{{cite web |title=Miscellaneous mathematical symbols |url=https://www.unicode.org/charts/nameslist/n_2200.html |publisher=Unicode Consortium}}</ref> * {{unichar|229B|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2722|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2723|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2724|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2725|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2731|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2732|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2733|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|273A|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|273B|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|273C|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|273D|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2743|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2749|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|274A|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|274B|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|29C6|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|2A6E|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|A673|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|FE61|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|FF0A|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1D1AF|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7AF|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B0|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B1|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B2|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B3|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B4|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B5|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B6|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B7|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B8|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7B9|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7BA|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7BB|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7BC|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7BD|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7BE|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|1F7BF|html=|nlink=}} * {{unichar|E002A|html=|nlink=}}

==See also== * {{Annotated link |Arabic star}} * {{Annotated link |Asterism (typography)}} * {{Annotated link |Dagger (mark)}} * {{Annotated link|Dinkus}} * {{Annotated link|Obelism}}, for example to identify errors * List of typographical symbols and punctuation marks *Reference mark ({{lang|ja-Latn|komejirushi}}), the symbol used in Chinese, Japanese and Korean typography for an equivalent purpose * Sextile{{snd}} an asterisk-like astrological symbol (⚹), six lines radiating at 60⁰ intervals

== Notes == {{notelist}}

==References== <references> <ref name="Benton">{{cite journal |last=Benton |first=Richard A. |date=Winter 1968 |title=Numeral and Attributive Classifiers in Trukese |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3622896 |journal=Oceanic Linguistics |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=104–146 |doi=10.2307/3622896 |jstor=3622896 |access-date=5 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <ref name="Bloomfield">{{cite book |last=Bloomfield |first=Leonard |author-link= |orig-date=1933 |date=1984 |title=Language |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=87BCDVsmFE4C |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press |page= |isbn=9780226060675}}</ref> <ref name="Cheng">{{cite journal |last=Cheng |first=Tsai Fa |date=1985 |title=Ancient Chinese and Early Mandarin |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23886826 |journal=Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series |volume= |issue=2 |pages=i-vi, 1–182 |jstor=23886826 |issn=2409-2878 |access-date=5 September 2023}}</ref> <ref name="Everett">{{cite journal |last1=Everett |first1=Daniel L. |date=August–October 2005 |title=Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã: Another Look at the Design Features of Human Language |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/431525 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=621–646 |doi=10.1086/431525 |jstor=10.1086/431525 |s2cid=2223235 |access-date=5 September 2023|hdl=2066/41103 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> <ref name="Golla">{{cite journal |last=Golla |first=Victor |date=June 1999 |title=Reconstruction |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43102468 |journal=Journal of Linguistic Anthropology |volume=9 |issue=1/2 |pages=208–211 |doi=10.1525/jlin.1999.9.1-2.208 |jstor=43102468 |issn=1055-1360 |access-date=5 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <ref name="Graffi">{{cite journal |last=Graffi |first=Giorgio |date=May 2002 |title=The Asterisk from Historical to Descriptive and Theoretical Linguistics: An historical note. |url=https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/hl.29.3.04gra |journal=Historiographia Linguistica |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=329–338 |doi=10.1075/hl.29.3.04gra |access-date=5 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <ref name="Householder">{{cite journal |last=Householder |first=F. W. |date=September 1973 |title=On Arguments from Asterisks |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25000725 |journal=Foundations of Language |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=365–376 |jstor=25000725 |issn=0015-900X |access-date=5 September 2023}}</ref> <ref name="Simons">{{cite journal |last=Simons |first=Mandy |date=August 1996 |title=Pronouns and Definite Descriptions: A Critique of Wilson |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2941036 |journal=The Journal of Philosophy |volume=93 |issue=8 |pages=408–420 |doi=10.2307/2941036 |jstor=2941036 |access-date=5 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <ref name="Timberlake">{{cite journal |last=Timberlake |first=Alan |date=Summer 1975 |title=Hierarchies in the Genitive of Negation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/306765 |journal=The Slavic and East European Journal |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=123–138 |doi=10.2307/306765 |jstor=306765 |access-date=5 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <ref name="Veerman">{{cite journal |last=Veerman-Leichsenring |first=Annette |date=July 2000 |title=Popolocan Independent Personal Pronouns: Comparison and Reconstruction |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1265625 |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=66 |issue=3 |pages=318–359 |doi=10.1086/466428 |jstor=1265625 |s2cid=143785664 |issn=0020-7071 |access-date=5 September 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref> <ref name="Xu">{{cite journal |last1=Xu |first1=Hui Ling |date=2007 |title=Aspect of Chaozhou Grammar A Synchronic Description of the Jieyang Variety / 潮州話揭陽方言語法研究 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23826160 |journal=Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series |volume= |issue=22 |pages=i-xiv, 1–304 |jstor=23826160 |issn=2409-2878 |access-date=5 September 2023}}</ref> </references>

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Category:Punctuation Category:Ancient Greek punctuation