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

ˈwī(-ə)l(d)-ˌkärd 

: 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

Meanwhile, the Senate special wild card: The fundamentals of Senate District 45 in the west metro favor Democrats, but the GOP is spending big on the race between former DFL Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart and Republican Kathleen Fowke. —Torey Van Oot, Axios, 4 Nov. 2024

Meta’s approach to AI is proving a wild card in the corporate race for dominance. —Paresh Dave, WIRED, 31 Oct. 2024

Read more: Libertarian candidate a wild card in swing states. —Jonathan Easley, The Hill, 29 Oct. 2024

Central Division wild card winners Detroit and the Royals advanced to the second round with only one real star between them. —Jack Magruder, Forbes, 4 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

wild card, playing card with arbitrarily determined value

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined at sense 1