"metacharacter" meaning in English

{
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        "2": "meta",
        "3": "character"
      },
      "expansion": "meta- + character",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "meta- + character",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "metacharacters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "metacharacter (plural metacharacters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w"
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          "parents": [
            "Entries with topic categories using raw markup",
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          "source": "w"
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          "name": "English terms prefixed with meta-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
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          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Greek terms with redundant script codes",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant script codes",
            "Entry maintenance"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Computing",
          "orig": "en:Computing",
          "parents": [
            "Technology",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Regular expressions",
          "orig": "en:Regular expressions",
          "parents": [
            "Computing",
            "Programming",
            "Technology",
            "Software engineering",
            "All topics",
            "Computer science",
            "Engineering",
            "Software",
            "Fundamental",
            "Sciences",
            "Applied sciences",
            "Media",
            "Communication"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2005, Andrew Watt, Beginning Regular Expressions, John Wiley & Sons, page 73",
          "text": "This chapter moves on to look at several regular expression metacharacters and modifiers. Metacharacters can be combined with literal characters and quantifiers, which were discussed in Chapter 3, to create more complex regular expression patterns.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "[2006, Olav Martin Kvern, David Blatner, Real World Adobe InDesign CS2, Peachpit Press, page 224",
          "text": "You can't enter invisible characters—such as tab characters, line-end characters, or carriage returns—in the Find What or Change To fields. To get around this, you enter codes—known as “metacharacters”—representing those characters.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard."
      ],
      "id": "en-metacharacter-en-noun-TEErG~hc",
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "asterisk",
          "asterisk"
        ],
        [
          "wildcard",
          "wildcard"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "escape character"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "metamerkki"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "métacaractère"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Metazeichen"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Funktionszeichen"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "metacharaktíras",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "μεταχαρακτήρας"
        },
        {
          "code": "fa",
          "lang": "Persian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "فرانویسه"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "metacharacter"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-metacharacter.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/En-uk-metacharacter.ogg/En-uk-metacharacter.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/En-uk-metacharacter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (UK)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "metacharacter"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "meta",
        "3": "character"
      },
      "expansion": "meta- + character",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "meta- + character",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "metacharacters",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "metacharacter (plural metacharacters)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "escape character"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with topic categories using raw markup",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms prefixed with meta-",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Greek terms with redundant script codes",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss",
        "en:Computing",
        "en:Regular expressions"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2005, Andrew Watt, Beginning Regular Expressions, John Wiley & Sons, page 73",
          "text": "This chapter moves on to look at several regular expression metacharacters and modifiers. Metacharacters can be combined with literal characters and quantifiers, which were discussed in Chapter 3, to create more complex regular expression patterns.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "[2006, Olav Martin Kvern, David Blatner, Real World Adobe InDesign CS2, Peachpit Press, page 224",
          "text": "You can't enter invisible characters—such as tab characters, line-end characters, or carriage returns—in the Find What or Change To fields. To get around this, you enter codes—known as “metacharacters”—representing those characters.]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "computing",
          "computing#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "character",
          "character"
        ],
        [
          "asterisk",
          "asterisk"
        ],
        [
          "wildcard",
          "wildcard"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(computing) A character used to signify something other than its literal form, such as the asterisk when used as a wildcard."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "computing",
        "engineering",
        "mathematics",
        "natural-sciences",
        "physical-sciences",
        "sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "metacharacter"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-uk-metacharacter.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/61/En-uk-metacharacter.ogg/En-uk-metacharacter.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/En-uk-metacharacter.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (UK)"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "metamerkki"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "métacaractère"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Metazeichen"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Funktionszeichen"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "metacharaktíras",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "μεταχαρακτήρας"
    },
    {
      "code": "fa",
      "lang": "Persian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "فرانویسه"
    }
  ],
  "word": "metacharacter"
}