Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who holds an office or place, especially as a deputy, proxy, or appointed government official.
  • noun In a mathematical or logical expression, a symbol that may be replaced by the name of any element of a set.
  • noun In the decimal form of a number, a digit that is not significant.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun 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.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person authorized to act for another
  • noun a symbol in a logical or mathematical expression that can be replaced by the name of any member of specified set

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

place +‎ holder.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word placeholder.

Examples

  • The default WordPress Theme features a blue "header" at the top with the title placeholder of your site.

    Codex - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The default WordPress Theme features a blue "header" at the top with the title placeholder of your site.

    Codex - Recent changes [en] Opay51 2009

  • What the heck are the Goobermen made of? backtrack a little in the archives, you'll see that the title placeholder for the Clayin Saga has finally been filled.

    The Web Comic List - Latest Webcomics 2008

  • • Insert a new slide with a title placeholder and a bulleted list placeholder (Title and Text).

    Recently Uploaded Slideshows vbdotnetnrew 2009

  • Now all they needed was a long-term placeholder, and everything had been arranged.

    Latest Articles The Corner at National Review 2010

  • The political machine already had a short-term placeholder in the Senate.

    Power Line 2010

  • Now all they needed was a long-term placeholder, and everything had been arranged.

    Theodore's World 2010

  • Now all they needed was a long-term placeholder, and everything had been arranged.

    Power Line 2010

  • The political machine already had a short-term placeholder in the Senate.

    Theodore's World 2010

  • The political machine already had a short-term placeholder in the Senate.

    Latest Articles The Corner at National Review 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.