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

The 49ers likely do not have a great chance of winning the NFC West, but a win would go a long way toward securing a wild card spot in the NFC. —Tyler Everett, MSNBC Newsweek, 24 Nov. 2025

Ties within groups will be broken before the calculation of wild card tiebreakers. —Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 22 Nov. 2025

The Texans are now just half a game behind the Jacksonville Jaguars for the final wild card spot. —Jackson Thompson, FOXNews.com, 21 Nov. 2025

This year’s Oscar wild card, however, is something that’s been with us all year. —Joe Reid, Vulture, 14 Nov. 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