wild card
nounDefinition of wild card
1
: an unknown or unpredictable factor
2
: one picked to fill a leftover playoff or tournament berth after regularly qualifying competitors have all been determined
3
usually wildcard \ ˈwī(-ə)l(d)-ˌkärd 
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: a symbol (such as ? or *) used in a keyword database search to represent the presence of zero, one, or more than one unspecified characters
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: a symbol (such as ? or *) used in a keyword database search to represent the presence of zero, one, or more than one unspecified characters
Examples of wild card in a Sentence
The joker is a wild card.
Taxes are the wild card in this election.
The team made it into the play-offs as the wild card.
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Recent Examples on the Web
There are also wild cards like monkey malaria to contend with. — Katie Hunt, CNN, "Can the world eradicate another disease?," 8 Sep. 2019 As late summer arrives and fall approaches, a few wild cards are in the mix. — Tom Stienstra, SFChronicle.com, "The best way to see Monterey? From the water," 6 Sep. 2019 All-Star Austin Meadows hit his 27th homer, leading Tampa Bay past the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 on Thursday night and maintaining the Rays’ half-game lead over the Oakland Athletics for the American League’s top wild card. — Mark Didtler, orlandosentinel.com, "Austin Meadows helps wild card-leading Rays beat Blue Jays 6-4," 5 Sep. 2019 Given that the Mets fell five games back of the second wild card slot with 23 games to play, this was not your average gut punch. — Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, "Jacob deGrom on track for second straight Cy Young Award - and Mets still can't win for him," 4 Sep. 2019 The 2018 third-round pick took over as the team’s starting right tackle for the final 10 games of the regular season and the team’s wild card-round loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. — Baltimore Sun Staff, baltimoresun.com, "Ravens mindful of 'streaky’ Dolphins QB Ryan Fitzpatrick; no decision yet on surgery for Tavon Young," 4 Sep. 2019 If that weather feature or any others currently on the map, such as a weakening high to the storm's east, do not evolve as anticipated, the storm could pull a wild card turn toward or further away from land. — Andrew Freedman, Anchorage Daily News, "Dorian starts inching north, closer to Florida, Georgia and Carolinas," 3 Sep. 2019 New York defeated Oakland in the AL wild-card game last year, and the Athletics are in a close race with Cleveland and Tampa Bay for the league's two wild cards this season. — Mike Fitzpatrick, courant.com, "LeMahieu homers in 11th, Yanks hit 4 and finally top A’s 4-3," 31 Aug. 2019 In losing for the fourth time in five games, the fading Brewers fell five games behind the Cubs for the second-wild card spot in the NL playoff race. — Tom Haudricourt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Cubs 7, Brewers 1: Anderson shelled early, Hiura exits with injury as slide continues," 30 Aug. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'wild card.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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