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
: 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
As with many pieces of legislation, former President Donald J. Trump is a wild card in the bill’s passage.
—
Lauren Hirsch, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2024
The winners all advance to the finals, which take place in November in Seville, Spain: 2023 champions Canada, 2023 runners-up Italy, host nation Spain, and wild card Czechia have already qualified for the 12-team event.
—Sean Gregory, TIME, 11 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for wild card 
Lauren Hirsch, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2024
The winners all advance to the finals, which take place in November in Seville, Spain: 2023 champions Canada, 2023 runners-up Italy, host nation Spain, and wild card Czechia have already qualified for the 12-team event.
—Sean Gregory, TIME, 11 Apr. 2024
See all Example Sentences for wild card
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wild card.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Wild card.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wild%20card. Accessed 4 May. 2024.
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