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

He’s not meant to be a replacement for their dead child so much as a visible placeholder for his memory, like an interactive and possibly sentient hologram of some old home video footage. —David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 16 May 2026

Instead, the former Labour leader could be seen as more of a placeholder candidate, should Burnham fail to become an MP ahead of a potential leadership contest. —Callum Sutherland, Time, 12 May 2026

The placeholder name for the force driving this acceleration is dark energy. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 May 2026

Second-round draft picks Williams and Shulga and veteran Banton were low-cost placeholders to fill spots at the end of the roster. —Zack Cox, Boston Herald, 8 May 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