The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

A* search

    A graph search algorithm.  A* is guaranteed to
   find a minimal solution path before any other solution paths,
   if a solution exists, in other words, it is an "admissible"
   search algorithm.  Each path is assigned a value based on the
   cost of the path (e.g. its length) and an (under)estimate of
   the cost of completing the path, i.e. the cost of a path from
   the end of the current path to a solution.

   (1995-03-31)