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wild card

   Also found in: Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.02 sec.
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.

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
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.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
wild card n (Comput) → wild card m inv


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