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You sometimes see the term "veg*n" on sites such as this one. What exactly does this term mean? Why is it used?

Nic
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C_Z_
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    I had guessed the answer when I first saw it thanks to my programmer background, but this is a very good question as today was the first time I have seen this term used. – Pharap Mar 24 '17 at 00:14
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    We're trying to [avoid use of veg*n](https://vegetarianism.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/234/should-we-change-vegn-questions-to-vegan-vegetarian-for-search-engines) on this site now. – Nic May 10 '18 at 23:09

1 Answers1

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Veg*n (or Veg*an) refers to both vegans and vegetarians. The use of the asterisk derives from its use in computer languages as a wildcard which can capture any sequence of characters.

Wiktionary

nloewen
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