wildcard

wild +‎ card

wildcard (plural wildcards)

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

2. (also written wild card) An uncontrolled or unpredictable element.
   • 2008 February 8, Eli Kintisch, "From Gasoline Alleys to Electric Avenues" , Science 319(5864), page 751

     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, […]

3. (also written wild card) An element, often deliberately concealed, which is withheld for contingency.
4. (sports, card games) Alternative form of wild card
   • 2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport‎:

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

A wild card in card games is usually written as two separate words. The computing term is usually written as one compound word.

wildcard m (plural wildcards)

1. wildcard