placeholder

[ pleys-hohl-der ]

noun

1. something that marks or temporarily fills a place (often used attributively): We’re using placeholder art in this mock-up of the ad layout.

   I couldn’t find my bookmark, so I put a coaster in my book as a placeholder.

   We’re using placeholder art in this mock-up of the ad layout.

2. Mathematics, Logic. a symbol in an expression that may be replaced by the name of any element of the set.
3. a person who holds a government office, especially one appointed to the position in return for political support or favors.

Word History and Origins

Origin of placeholder¹

First recorded in 1550–60; place + holder

Example Sentences

One could even argue that Mother’s Day provided a superficial placeholder in lieu of policies that actually would benefit mothers.

From Washington Post

A good workaround is to use an image placeholder where the video would normally load.

From Search Engine Watch

It listed a potential offering size of $1 billion, a placeholder that will likely change.

From Fortune

The company has included a standard $100M placeholder for the amount they intend to raise for the event, and that will almost certainly change.

From TechCrunch

Those numbers are not the opening prices of the stock, but rather placeholders based on private-market trading, and act as jumping-off points.

From Fortune

The Defense Department has set aside $79 billion for OCO for the next fiscal year, the same placeholder amount as this one.

From The Daily Beast

That bill is a placeholder to get the House on record while the Senate works on the more detailed legislation, aides said.

From The Daily Beast

Maybe it was being used as a placeholder and never taken out.

From The Daily Beast

Intended to be a placeholder, no one suspected he would do anything of consequence.

From The Daily Beast

Rather than Roman numerals, this appears to be a placeholder to a reference that was not filled in.

From Project Gutenberg