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

If Young excels in 2026, the Panthers will have a placeholder year in 2027 to negotiate a contract extension with the 2023 first overall pick. —Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 30 Apr. 2026

But these are mere placeholder plot points. —Guy Lodge, Variety, 29 Apr. 2026

Some moves were better than others, as the acquisitions of Orlov, Gaudette, Nedeljkovic, Sherwood, and Reaves were generally positive, while bringing in Klingberg, Kurashev, and Jeff Skinner didn’t work out, even with Klingberg and Skinner being placeholders. —Curtis Pashelka, 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

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