wild card

noun

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 wildcard

ˈwī(-ə)l(d)-ˌkärd 

: a symbol (such 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 in a Sentence

The joker is a wild card.

Taxes are the wild card in this election.

The team made it into the play-offs as the wild card.

Recent Examples on the Web

Trapilo suffered a patellar injury in the Bears' wild card playoff win over the Packers, and originally was expected to miss much of the 2026 season. — Todd Feurer, CBS News, 11 Aug. 2026

Despite these challenges, the Blue Jays have shown recent signs of a turnaround, winning seven of their last ten games and four consecutive series, keeping their wild card hopes alive. — Peter Chawaga, Forbes.com, 9 Aug. 2026

Which means that were the season to end today, the Dodgers would be playing in a wild card series. — Ian Miller Outkick, FOXNews.com, 6 Aug. 2026

Green Bay’s season ended with a 31-27 los s to the rival Chicago Bears in the NFC wild card playoffs, a game in which the Packers surrendered 25 fourth-quarter points after building a 21-3 halftime lead. — ABC News, 4 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

wild card, playing card with arbitrarily determined value

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for wild card

• asgard
• backyard
• barnyard
• blackguard
• bombard
• brickyard
• canard
• churchyard
• coastguard
• courtyard
• debarred
• diehard