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 grant announced Monday is a placeholder, worth about one-third of what Musk would currently be owed under the 2018 package. —Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 4 Aug. 2025

Unnecessarily apologies can undercut whatever statement comes next, and act as a placeholder for nervousness or fear of being judged, keynote speaker and CEO Lorraine K. Lee wrote for CNBC Make It in May. —Ashton Jackson, CNBC, 24 July 2025

Rogers said Pepper, the name of his own dog, was at first considered a jokey placeholder until his team landed on another title. —Amanda Hancock, The Courier-Journal, 2 July 2025

The Senate Finance Committee’s version would keep the SALT deduction at $10,000, a figure that is generally considered a placeholder as both sides negotiate. —Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes.com, 21 June 2025

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