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

According to social media, a placeholder partner is good enough to date, live with, or even spend years alongside, but never the person their partner actually plans to commit to in the long term. —Meehika Barua, Time, 3 Feb. 2026

Once the company separates, Cahillane will serve as chief executive of Global Taste Elevation, the placeholder name for the spinoff with high-growth brands like Heinz and Philadelphia. —Amelia Lucas, CNBC, 31 Jan. 2026

Incline walking, or walking in general, still seems to get treated like a placeholder—something to do between more intense workouts like weightlifting or running. —Outside, 31 Jan. 2026

Newsom’s initial $349 billion budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year is, as administration officials acknowledge, merely a placeholder. —Dan Walters, Mercury News, 28 Jan. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1927, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for placeholder

• officeholder
• beholder
• bondholder
• cardholder
• freeholder
• householder
• landholder
• leaseholder
• lienholder
• shareholder
• slaveholder
• smallholder

Kids Definition

placeholder

noun

place·​hold·​er ˈplās-ˌhōl-dər 

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