metacharacter

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard.

Pronunciation

en-uk-metacharacter.ogg

Word forms

metacharacter metacharacters

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *me Proto-Indo-European *meth₂? Ancient Greek μετᾰ́ (metắ) Ancient Greek μετᾰ- (metă-)lbor. English meta- Ancient Greek χαράσσω (kharássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Ancient Greek -τήρ (-tḗr) Ancient Greek χαρακτήρ (kharaktḗr)der. Latin charactērder. Old French caracterebor. Middle English caracter English character English metacharacter From meta- + character.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.