1 (in card games) a card that has no value of its own and takes the value of any card that the player chooses ﹙纸牌游戏中由持牌人自由决定牌值的﹚百搭牌，变牌

2 (sports 体育) an opportunity for sb to play in a competition when he/she has not qualified in the usual way; a player who enters a competition in this way 外卡参赛，外卡选手﹙指没有正常参赛资格而参赛﹚: He was given a wild card for the tournament. 他获得了参加锦标赛的外卡参赛机会。 She was beaten in the semi-finals by wild card Alison Waters. 她在半决赛中被外卡选手艾丽森·沃特斯击败了。 a wild-card entry/place 外卡参赛/席位

3 (computing 计算机技术) a symbol that has no meaning of its own and can represent any letter or number 通配符: An asterisk is commonly used as a wild card. 星号常用作通配符。 a wild-card search 用通配符搜寻

4 a person or thing whose behaviour or effect is difficult to predict 难以预测的人﹙或事物﹚；未知因素；未知数: The Nationalist party is the wild card in the election. 国民党是此次选举的未知因素。