placeholder

noun

place·​hold·​er ˈplās-ˌhōl-dər 

plural placeholders

1

: a person or thing that occupies the position or place of another person or thing

The bill would empower the governor to appoint a placeholder to a vacant U.S. Senate seat, to serve through the next general election cycle.

—John Sharp

The result was that the legislation represented little more than a placeholder to put the budget before a conference committee …

—Carl Ingram

2

: a symbol in a mathematical or logical expression that may be replaced by the name of any element of a set

3

American football : a player who places and holds the ball upright on the ground for placekicking of a field goal

Examples of placeholder in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That budget could serve as a placeholder while leaders continue to negotiate with Newsom. —Lindsey Holden, Sacramento Bee, 30 May 2024

Initially, this was meant to be a temporary placeholder until a permanent camp could be completed. —Heather Richardson, Travel + Leisure, 10 Aug. 2024

Serving as his placeholder in the lineup at first base against a left-handed starter, David Villar started the sixth by lining a double into the right-field corner for the Giants’ first of two extra-base hits. —Evan Webeck, The Mercury News, 30 July 2024

This expensive, but frequently cheap-looking, placeholder is historical, but larded up with clunky fiction. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 17 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1927, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

placeholder

noun

place·​hold·​er ˈplās-ˌhōl-dər 

: a symbol used in mathematics in the place of a numeral not yet known