see wild card

English

Noun

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

   In searching, if a*m finds amalgam, atom and alum, then * is acting as a wildcard.

2. An uncontrolled or unpredictable element.
   • 2008 February 8, Eli Kintisch, "From Gasoline Alleys to Electric Avenues" http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5864/750a, 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,

Usage notes

A wild card in card games is written as two separate words. The computing term is written as one compound word (except when errantly "auto-corrected.")

The term wild card was originally used in card games, but the term has evolved to describe what the Merriam-Webster Dictionary calls "an unknown or unpredictable factor" in any number of domains.

Wild card may refer to:

• Wild Card (card games) - a playing card that substitutes for any other card in card games
• Wildcard (witch) - is a solitary ecceletic witch of no set path with 25 years of experience. Wildcard is the founder of a irc chat room called the #innercircle. Wildcard is a elder witch that gives off himeself and at times teaches and directs one to learn about their true self and path.
• wild card (sports) - a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play
• wild card (Foresight research) - low-probability, high-impact events
• WILD Card (South African national parks) - a smartcard-based annual season ticket to Southern African national parks
• Wild Card 2, a game offered by the Multi-State Lottery Association played in the north-central United States; replaced a similar game called "Wild Card"
• Wild Card - a card placed on the wheel on the U.S. version of Wheel of Fortune. A player holding the card, who subsequently lands on a cash space and calls a consonant appearing in the puzzle, may turn it in for the chance to call a second consonant for the same cash value in the same turn, or to gain an extra consonant during the Bonus round puzzle.
• Wildcard - A quarterly(ish) event in Leicester, exhibiting art, performance, film, music and the odd videogame.
• Wild card spot - a semifinals berth given to a Jeopardy! tournament player who is one of the four high-scoring non-winners in the quarterfinal round.

In computing:

• wildcard character - a character that substitutes for other characters in regular expressions
• wildcard DNS record - a record in a DNS zone file that will match all requests for non-existent domain names
• Wildcard Netmask - a netmask that swapping 1 to 0 and 0 to 1 from the normal netmask.

In arts:

• Wild Cards - a series of science fiction/superhero books
  • Wild Cards (book) - the first book in the series
• Wild Card (TV series), a.k.a. Zoe Busiek: Wild Card, a Canadian TV series starring Joely Fisher
• Wild Card (Rippingtons album) - a 2005 album by The Rippingtons
• Wild Card - a 2001 video game for the WonderSwan Color
• Wildcard (record label) - a minor record label - now part with Polydor
• Wildcards - a nickname of the most prominent starfighter squadron in Space: Above and Beyond
• Wild Cards - an episode of the Justice League animated series.
• Wild Card Stack - a programming block on the Toon Disney TV channel