Idiom
Wild card
A wild card is a person or thing whose actions or effects are hard to predict, or a team let into a contest without the usual qualification.
How people use it
In everyday talk, a wild card is an unpredictable factor: The weather is the wild card for Saturday's race. A person can be a wild card too, someone who might do anything. In sports, a wild card is a team or player given a place in a tournament or playoffs without qualifying in the normal way. In computing, a wildcard (often one word) is a symbol like an asterisk that stands for any character. The idiom is neutral and very common.
Also said: wildcard.
Examples
- The new hire is a wild card; she could solve the problem or create a new one.
- Our team got into the playoffs as a wild card and then won the whole thing.
- Traffic is always the wild card when you're trying to catch an early flight.
Where it comes from
The phrase comes from card games, especially poker, where a wild card can stand for any card the player chooses, which makes the game less predictable. That use dates from the early 1900s in the US. The sports sense of an extra playoff place appeared in the later 1900s, and the general sense of an unpredictable factor grew alongside it.
Check yourself
1. If a manager calls the weather the wild card for an outdoor event, what does she mean?
Answer: It is hard to predict and could change everything. A wild card is an unpredictable factor.
2. In sports, what is a wild card team?
Answer: A team let into the playoffs without the usual qualification. A wild card spot gives a place to a team that did not qualify the normal way.
Similar idioms
Word game fan? See every word hiding in CARD.