placeholder

noun

place·​hold·​er ˈplās-ˌhōl-dər How to pronounce placeholder (audio)
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 Winslet initially agreed to do a version as a placeholder, assuming the film's producers would find another artist to record the ballad. Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 4 Mar. 2024 In a preview of the November election, the president lost in Dearborn, home to Ford, in this week’s Michigan primary to a placeholder opponent and saw a significant number lodge protest votes across the state. Christiaan Hetzner, Fortune, 1 Mar. 2024 Streisand aside, the ad-freeness of the evening was its most notable feature, though in fact there were commercial placeholders, most featuring backstage interviews by Tan France that unfortunately brought the red carpet into the midst of the program proper. Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2024 McCarty has authored a placeholder measure, Assembly Bill 1794, which currently has language suggesting an intent to alter Proposition 47. Lindsey Holden, Sacramento Bee, 15 Feb. 2024 For 25 years, a smaller Opie painting served as a placeholder for the lost piece. Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY, 2 Feb. 2024 President Joe Biden last October issued an executive order, setting out guidelines to protect Americans against discrimination and massive job losses caused by AI—a placeholder while Congress and U.S. agencies like the Department of Commerce attempt to turn the order into hard rules. Vivienne Walt, Fortune, 1 Feb. 2024 Curiously, because the configurations are loaded via the xmm registers, IDA actually misses the first two loaded arguments, which are the binary name and the pool IP placeholder. Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 10 Jan. 2024 All the while, Mica Levi, who composed the film’s striking score, was writing musical cues and sequences, which Watts and Glazer were using as placeholder tracks to structure scenes. Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'placeholder.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1927, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of placeholder was in 1927

Dictionary Entries Near placeholder

Cite this Entry

“Placeholder.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/placeholder. Accessed 18 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

placeholder

noun
place·​hold·​er ˈplās-ˌhōl-dər How to pronounce placeholder (audio)
: a symbol used in mathematics in the place of a numeral not yet known

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