Final answer:
The dereference operator * is a unary operator used in programming languages like C and C++ to access the value stored in a memory address pointed to by a pointer variable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The dereference operator * is a unary operator used in programming languages like C and C++ to access the value stored in a memory address pointed to by a pointer variable.
For example, if you have a pointer variable 'ptr' that points to an integer, you can use the dereference operator to retrieve the value of the integer at that memory location by writing '*ptr'.
This operator is useful when you want to work with the actual value stored in memory rather than just the memory address.