# Wildcard tags in searches - finding topics without certain tags?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/wildcard-tags-in-searches-finding-topics-without-certain-tags/130633>\
**Category:** Feature\
**Tags:** search\
**Created:** [October 9, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/wildcard-tags-in-searches-finding-topics-without-certain-tags/130633 "2019-10-09T23:22:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![Perry\_Eising](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/perry_eising/32/151717_2.png) [@Perry\_Eising](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Perry_Eising)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 11:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/wildcard-tags-in-searches-finding-topics-without-certain-tags/130633/1 "2019-10-09T23:22:15Z")

</div>

I have the following situation:

I have a category containing many topics (900+), all of which have the same tag, say **answered** , which we use to track posts that have been responded to.

Many also contain other tags: **deployment, cli, api,** and so on, to denote the “theme” of the question.

How do I find all topics in my category that only have the **answered** tag, but none of the others?

I have tried the following syntax, for example `tags:answered -tags:redirects` while searching indeed gives me all things with the answered tag but NOT the ones with the **redirects** tag.

But to apply this to my situation I’d have to list out all the tags to NOT find individually - and I have many.

Is there a way to use wildcards in tag searches? something like: `tags:answered -tags: *`?

If not, is there another way it is possible to get a list of things that ONLY have the **answered** tag but none of the others?

thank you for your thoughts on this.

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