placeholder

6 definitions • 9 examples

a piece of text or an image that is put in a document temporarily before the final text or image is added later:

Currently we are using a stock image we found as a placeholder.

You can replace the placeholder text manually.

an object that is put somewhere temporarily before the final thing is added later:

Surgeons had cleaned the eye socket and fitted it with a foam placeholder ready for a prosthetic eye.

A placeholder variable p represents the result of a computation in progress.

If you use a ? as a placeholder, it adds spaces for insignificant zeros on either side of the decimal point, so decimal points align.

someone who does another more important person's job temporarily:

Ted may or may not be a placeholder for Beau.

After being named interim president of California's stem cell institute, Murphy said he had no intention of serving merely as a placeholder until a permanent president is found.

someone who has an official or government position, especially because they supported the people in power, rather than because they deserved to get the position:

At the start of his time in office, analysts were asking if he was a placeholder or a real Prime Minister.

in American football, a player who holds the ball in a vertical position on the ground so another player can kick it:

The placeholder's job is to call for the ball, catch it, and place it just right for the kicker.