wild card
noun
1
: an unknown or unpredictable factor
2
: one picked to fill a leftover playoff or tournament berth after regularly qualifying competitors have all been determined
3
usually wildcard
: a symbol (such as ? or *) used in a keyword database search to represent the presence of zero, one, or more than one unspecified characters
Examples of wild card in a Sentence
The joker is a wild card.
Taxes are the wild card in this election.
The team made it into the play-offs as the wild card.
Recent Examples on the Web
San Francisco is also two games behind the Green Bay Packers for the final wild card spot in the NFC.
—
Rohan Nadkarni, NBC News, 8 Nov. 2024
San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams are both 4-4, are getting healthy and figure to make strong pushes for wild card spots.
—Rob Reischel, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
The number of wild card votes is dwindling with Manchin, Romney and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz) on their way out.
—Justin Green, Axios, 27 Oct. 2024
There’s also a wild card in the list of potential nightmares: What happens if the electoral vote is a tie, 269 to 269?
—Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for wild card 
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Rohan Nadkarni, NBC News, 8 Nov. 2024
San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams are both 4-4, are getting healthy and figure to make strong pushes for wild card spots.
—Rob Reischel, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
The number of wild card votes is dwindling with Manchin, Romney and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz) on their way out.
—Justin Green, Axios, 27 Oct. 2024
There’s also a wild card in the list of potential nightmares: What happens if the electoral vote is a tie, 269 to 269?
—Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times, 21 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for wild card
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Cite this Entry
“Wild card.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wild%20card. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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