wildcard
n.a person or thing that is unpredictable and could change the result of a situation. In computing, it is a symbol like * that can represent any character.
n.an unpredictable factor or person whose influence on a situation is difficult to estimate. In computing, refers to a character that can be substituted for any other character or sequence of characters in a search.
“The new player is a wildcard who could win the game for us.”
“The weather remains the ultimate wildcard for the outdoor festival, as a sudden storm could force a total cancellation.”
“In the final weeks of the campaign, the third-party candidate emerged as a wildcard, potentially siphoning enough votes from the frontrunner to swing the entire election.”
Often used metaphorically in sports and politics to describe unpredictable participants.
“A wildcard search uses a question mark (?) in place of a letter to let the search system fill in the missing letter.”
“The manager knows he also has that wildcard of putting me or Fermin [López] there, which is a position I feel comfortable in.”
From wild + card.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.