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

Outside of myriad untitled placeholders that year, the only movies that are hard-dated with titles for that year are Disney/Pixar’s Coco 2 on November 21 and Disney/20th Studios’ Avatar 4 on December 21. — Anthony D'alessandro, Deadline, 29 Sep. 2026

Rather than risking damage to the cards, a redemption card bearing a code serves as a placeholder in the pack. — Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026

Then Shay Whitcomb, who is here only as a waiver-claim placeholder because the Giants exhausted all their infield depth, drove a pitch off the wall in center field to cap the six-run rally and give the Giants the lead. — Andrew Baggarly, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026

Lofgren previously criticized Wahab for not stepping aside for a placeholder candidate in June to fill the rest of Swalwell’s term, urging voters to support Hernandez. — Kyle Martin, Mercury News, 2 Sep. 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