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

ˈwī(-ə)l(d)-ˌkärd 

: 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

Under the new proposal, teams would be reseeded based strictly on record for the divisional round, regardless of whether a team won its division or made the playoffs as a wild card. —Jayna Bardahl, New York Times, 20 May 2025

Denver was the No. 7 seed in the AFC, and lost its wild card round game to Buffalo, 31-7. Offseason moves: The Broncos had an impressive free agency period, highlighted by the signing of linebacker Dre Greenlaw, safety Talanoa Hufanga and tight end Evan Engram. —Rob Reischel, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025

The upcoming series stars many of the usual suspects in a Murphy joint (Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash), relative Murphy-verse newcomer Kim Kardashian, plus a couple of high-brow wild cards. —Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 14 May 2025

After its holiday games, Prime Video will also air an NFL wild card playoff game in January. —Dade Hayes, Deadline, 12 May 2025

Word History

Etymology

wild card, playing card with arbitrarily determined value

First Known Use

1971, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for wild card

• asgard
• backyard
• barnyard
• blackguard
• bombard
• brickyard
• canard
• churchyard
• coastguard
• courtyard
• debarred
• diehard