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

Before the new interviews were conducted, Hostetter got a head start on cutting the first act of the documentary by using archival interviews as placeholders, which established an initial structure and helped give the directors more pointed questions to ask. —Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 13 June 2024

The engine, with a placeholder name of S1E, is based on full-flow, stage-combustion technology in which the liquid propellants are burned in the engine's pre-burners. —Eric Berger, Ars Technica, 11 June 2024

Peak Popularity: The name Brother, itself hasn't made a blip on the naming charts since the 1920s, suggesting that it was used as a placeholder for newborn boys rather than an actual name. —Devonne Goode, Parents, 10 June 2024

Rookie of the Year watch on disney+ Star Wars Year: 1977 Runtime: 2h 5m Director: George Lucas Consider this entry a placeholder for your favorite Star Wars movies, all of which have an exclusive home on Disney+. —Brian Tallerico, Vulture, 3 June 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