Dictionary

placeholder en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈpleɪsˌhoʊldɚ/ (General-American)
• (General-American) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree English place Proto-Germanic *haldaną Proto-West Germanic *haldan Old English healdan Middle English holden English hold Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzios Latin -āriusnom. Latin -āriusbor. Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz Proto-West Germanic *-ārī Old English -ere Middle English -ere English -er English holder English placeholder From place + holder.

Meanings

1. Something used or included temporarily or as a substitute for something that is not known or must remain generic; that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later.
   • As the years go by, speech reverts to childhood levels of disfluency, with more pauses, more errors, more repeated words, but even the peak years are not great: up to 8 percent of the average person’s word output consists of meaningless fillers and placeholders like um, uh and er. 2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2013:
   • This data is a placeholder, so you'll want to include the real numbers as soon as you have them.
   • "I'm on vacation," [Bruce] Willis grumbles several times throughout A Good Day To Die Hard, in what counts as the film's sole running joke, a lame placeholder until he arrives at the big "yippee-ki-yay" punchline. 2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “A Good Day To Die Hard [film review]”, in The AV Club, archived from the original on 10 Mar 2016:
2. A non-editable caption initially displayed in a blank text box to indicate its function.

Forms

Relateds

greek · lorem ipsum · greeking

Synonyms

whatshisname · thingy

Translations (33)

ar العُنْصُرُ النَّائِب (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · hu pótlék (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · pl symbol zastępczy (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · nl plaatshouder (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · mi puri tūranga (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · it variabile (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · it segnaposto (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · ru ры́ба (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · mk резервирано место (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · nl vulsel (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · pl zamiennik (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · no plassholder (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · nl vulling (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · it tal dei tali (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · sv platshållare (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · fi paikkamerkki (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · hu helykitöltő (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · it simbolo (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · hu helyőrző (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · es marcador de posición (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · ru заполни́тель (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · cy dalfan (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · pt calhau (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · fr placeholder (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · it sostituto (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · es comodín (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · de Platzhalter (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · es elemento provisional/temporáneo (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · fr marque substitutive (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · mk пополнувач (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · hu helyettesítő (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · fr substitut (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later) · nl invul- (that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later)