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

The $349 billion January budget, which includes $248 billion in general fund spending, was admittedly a placeholder that sidestepped the larger issues. —Dan Walters, Mercury News, 24 Apr. 2026

Discovered in the late 1990s, dark energy is really just a placeholder name for whatever force is pushing galaxies apart faster and faster. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 15 Apr. 2026

The auction listing described how Monroe tried to return the placeholder ring to Miller's mother numerous times, but was unable to reach her before her death. —Bailey Bujnosek, InStyle, 13 Apr. 2026

Generic Lamps Standard table lamps have started to feel more like placeholders than design decisions, filling space, but not really contributing to it. —Angelika Pokovba, Martha Stewart, 3 Apr. 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