Asterisks *

If you need an explanatory note, particularly in a table or figure, you can:

• place an asterisk immediately after the text you’re explaining
• include the note at the bottom of the table or figure, introduced with an asterisk.

That said, if you need to include regular notes, it’s best to use superscript numbers instead of asterisks. This will ensure readers can easily connect the different notes to their corresponding text.

Asterisks also have something of a bad reputation for hiding the ‘fine print’ in an advertisement – which usually means the deal being offered has conditions that make it far less attractive than at first glance. And there’s nothing more annoying than seeing an asterisk but not being able to find the fine print it refers to.

The second common use of an asterisk is to censor content that is:

• rude or offensive, such as in quoted text
• sensitive or legally privileged.

But note that long strings of asterisks will detract from your text. So if you need to disguise a word, it may be better to use:

• initials alone for a person’s name
• a generic reference (such as ‘the company’ or ‘the service provider’) for an organisation’s name.

In recent years, the humble asterisk has been given a new lease of life on social media. Its existing function to censor words transferred easily, but it is also used for emphasis. 

On social media platforms where bold is not available, you can instead emphasise a word or phrase by putting 2 asterisks around it. This became common enough that some sites and apps now convert the asterisks to bold for you.

If you make a typo in a post or message that you can’t correct, you can also use an asterisk to correct it in a follow-up.