jquery find element by specific class when element has multiple classes

You can combine selectors like this

$(".alert-box.warn, .alert-box.dead");

Or if you want a wildcard use the attribute-contains selector

$("[class*='alert-box']");

Note: Preferably you would know the element type or tag when using the selectors above. Knowing the tag can make the selector more efficient.

$("div.alert-box.warn, div.alert-box.dead");
$("div[class*='alert-box']");