wild card

wild·card or wild card  (wldkärd)

n.

1. Games A playing card whose value can vary as determined by its holder.

2. Sports An athlete or team selected to compete in a tournament or playoff from among those who did not qualify by meeting the regular requirements.

3. Computer Science A symbol that stands for one or more unspecified characters, used especially in searching text and in selecting multiple files or directories.

4. Slang An unpredictable or unforeseeable factor: A surprise witness proved to be the wild card at the trial.

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wild card

n

1. (Group Games / Card Games) See wild [14]

2. (General Sporting Terms) Sport a player or team that has not qualified for a competition but is allowed to take part, at the organizers' discretion, after all the regular places have been taken

3. an unpredictable element in a situation

4. (Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) Computing a symbol that can represent any character or group of characters, as in a filename

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	wild card - an unpredictable factor; "the weather was a wild card" factor - anything that contributes causally to a result; "a number of factors determined the outcome"
	2.	wild card - a playing card whose value can be determined by the person who holds it playing card - one of a pack of cards that are used to play card games

Translations

wild card n (Comput) → wild card m inv