In information retrieval searching, methods of truncation and use of wildcards are employed. Generally, truncation may be left- or right-side truncation -- meaning zero, one, or more characters may be implied. Wildcards, generally mean one character is implied.
Both terms, however, are used fairly interchangably. However, different databases and search engines use truncation and wildcards in different -- and often very precise -- ways.
Examples:
wom?n uses the wildcard ? character to search for "women" and "woman" (exactly one character), but not "womn" (zero characters) and not "womaan" (two characters)
transport* uses the truncation * character to search for "transport" (zero characters), "transports" (one character), and transportation" (more than one character)
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