Dictionary

wildcard en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From wild + card.

Meanings

1. A character that takes the place of any other character or string that is not known or specified.
   • If the character * is acting as a wildcard, then the pattern a*m matches each of the words amalgam, atom and alum.
   • 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.
2. (qualifier:also written wild card) An uncontrolled or unpredictable element.
   • 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, […] 2008 February 8, Eli Kintisch, “From Gasoline Alleys to Electric Avenues”, in Science, 319(5864), page 751:
3. (qualifier:also written wild card) An element, often deliberately concealed, which is withheld for contingency.
4. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative form of wild card.
   alt of wild card
   • German wildcard Sabine Lisicki conquered her nerves to defeat France's Marion Bartoli and take her amazing Wimbledon run into the semi-finals. 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport:
5. 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.

Forms

Translations (31)

fi kysymysmerkki (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · fa چمنویسه (special character) · cmn 通配符 (special character) · ja ワイルドカード (special character) · fr joker (special character) · pt coringa (special character) · eo ĵokero (special character) · nl jokerteken (special character) · ru си́мвол-джо́кер (special character) · ro joker (special character) · de Platzhalter (special character) · hu helyettesítő karakter (special character) · fi avoin kysymys (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · pl wieloznacznik (special character) · pl dzika karta (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · fa زیرسبیلی (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · cmn 未知数 (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · ru знак подстано́вки (special character) · ru шабло́н (special character) · ko 와일드카드 (special character) · pt curinga (special character) · el χαρακτήρας μπαλαντέρ (special character) · sv jokertecken (special character) · fr électron libre (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · fi jokerimerkki (special character) · es comodín (special character) · ro wildcard (special character) · el μπαλαντέρ (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · is algildistákn (special character) · fa چموش (uncontrolled or unpredictable element) · fa نویسه جانشین (special character)

wildcard en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From wild + card.

Meanings

1. To replace or supplement with a wildcard character to allow matching against a range of possible values.
   • The unfortunate consequence is that document elements cannot be wildcarded because a schema needs to provide a closed list of possible document elements. 2002, Eric Van der Vlist, XML Schema, page 183:

Forms