wild card


wild card

noun

Definition of WILD CARD

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 wild·card : a symbol (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

  1. The joker is a wild card.
  2. Taxes are the wild card in this election.
  3. The team made it into the play-offs as the wild card.

Origin of WILD CARD

wild card, playing card with arbitrarily determined value
First Known Use: 1971

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