A partial word is a string that may contain a number of "do not know" or "do not care" symbols i.e. placeholders in the string where the symbol value is not known or not specified. More formally, a partial word is a partial function where is some finite alphabet. If u(k) is not defined for some then the unknown element at place k in the string is called a "hole". In regular expressions (following the POSIX standard) a hole is represented by the metacharacter ".". For example, aab.ab.b is a partial word of length 8 over the alphabet A ={a,b} in which the fourth and seventh characters are holes.
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“Both the man of science and the man of art live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it. Both, as a measure of their creation, have always had to do with the harmonization of what is new with what is familiar, with the balance between novelty and synthesis, with the struggle to make partial order in total chaos.... This cannot be an easy life.”
—J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967)
“Make me thy Loome: thy Grace the warfe therein,
My duties Woofe, and let thy word winde Quills.
The shuttle shoot. Cut off the ends my sins.
Thy Ordinances make my fulling mills,
My Life thy Web: and cloath me all my dayes
With this Gold-web of Glory to thy praise.”
—Edward Taylor (1645–1729)