Wildcard

Pronunciation varies by accent · noun

Meaning

(computing) A character that takes the place of any other character or string that is not known or specified..

Definitions by Sense

1. (computing) A character that takes the place of any other character or string that is not known or specified.
2. (also written wild card) An uncontrolled or unpredictable element.
3. (also written wild card) An element, often deliberately concealed, which is withheld for contingency.
4. (sports, card games) Alternative form of wild card.
5. (phonetics, phonology) A letter or symbol that substitutes for a generic or poorly identified sound, for example capital C for any or some consonant, or capital V for any or some vowel.
6. (computing) To replace or supplement with a wildcard character to allow matching against a range of possible values.

Example Sentences

1968, Digital Equipment Corporation, VAX/VMS 319(5864), page 751, Section 2.1.2 Using Wildcard Characters A wildcard character is a symbol that you can use with many DCL commands to apply the command to several files at once, rather than specifying each file individually.

If the character * is acting as a wildcard, then the pattern a*m matches each of the words amalgam, atom and alum.

There are several technical wildcards, such as how the larger battery packs--four times larger than those of the Prius--will withstand the rigors of city driving, […]

German wildcard Sabine Lisicki conquered her nerves to defeat France's Marion Bartoli and take her amazing Wimbledon run into the semi-finals.

The unfortunate consequence is that document elements cannot be wildcarded because a schema needs to provide a closed list of possible document elements.

Synonyms for wildcard

Antonyms for wildcard

Related Words

Word Forms

• wildcards
• wildcarding
• wildcarded

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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