wildcard meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

wildcard

noun

Etymology From wild + card.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences 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.

An uncontrolled or unpredictable element.

Also written wild card

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, […]2008 February 8, Eli Kintisch, “From Gasoline Alleys to Electric Avenues”, in Science, 319(5864), page 751:

An element, often deliberately concealed, which is withheld for contingency.

Also written wild card

Card games, Games, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Sports Alternative Alternative form of wild card.

German wildcard Sabine Lisicki conquered her nerves to defeat France's Marion Bartoli and take her amazing Wimbledon run into the semi-finals.2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport:

Human sciences, Linguistics, Phonetics, Phonology, Sciences A letter or symbol that substitutes for a generic or poorly identified sound, for example capital C for any or some consonant, or capital V for any or some vowel.

wildcard

verb

Etymology From wild + card.

Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To replace or supplement with a wildcard character to allow matching against a range of possible values.

The unfortunate consequence is that document elements cannot be wildcarded because a schema needs to provide a closed list of possible document elements.2002, Eric Van der Vlist, XML Schema, page 183: