Asterisk

Also called star.

How to type it

Right middle finger with Shift.

Common uses

• An asterisk points to a footnote or a caveat, as in a price followed by a starred note.
• In plain text and chat, words between asterisks suggest emphasis, as in *really*.

Less common uses

• The name comes from the Greek asteriskos, meaning little star.
• In searches and file names, * is a wildcard that matches any run of characters, as in *.txt.
• Many programming languages use * for multiplication, and C uses it to declare pointers.