Meanings
plural placeholders · alternative place holder
- 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.
This data is a placeholder, so you'll want to include the real numbers as soon as you have them.
2 more examples
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"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
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Englishplace
- Proto-Germanic*haldaną
- Proto-West Germanic*haldan
- Old Englishhealdan
- Middle Englishholden
- Englishhold
- Englishholder
- Englishplaceholder
Translations
Arabic العُنْصُرُ النَّائِب
- العُنْصُرُ النَّائِب (al-ʕunṣuru n-nāʔib)that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Dutch plaatshouder, invul-
- plaatshouderthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- invul-that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- vulselthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- vullingthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Finnish paikkamerkki
- paikkamerkkithat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
French marque substitutive, substitut
- marque substitutivethat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- substitutthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- placeholderthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
German Platzhalter
- Platzhalterthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Hungarian helyettesítő, pótlék
- helyettesítőthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- pótlékthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- helykitöltőthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- helyőrzőthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Italian segnaposto, simbolo
- segnapostothat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- simbolothat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- sostitutothat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- variabilethat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- tal dei talithat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Māori puri tūranga
- puri tūrangathat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Norwegian plassholder
- plassholderthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Polish zamiennik, symbol zastępczy
- zamiennikthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- symbol zastępczythat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Portuguese calhau
- calhauthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Russian заполни́тель, ры́ба
- заполни́тель (zapolnítelʹ)that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- ры́ба (rýba)that which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Spanish comodín, marcador de posición
- comodínthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- marcador de posiciónthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
- elemento provisional/temporáneothat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Swedish platshållare
- platshållarethat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Welsh dalfan
- dalfanthat which holds, denotes or reserves a place for something to come later
Cite this entry
placeholder. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/placeholder
“placeholder.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/placeholder. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “placeholder,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/placeholder.
Source: placeholder on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.