Question: What Is a Placeholder?
Answer:
A placeholder (also known as a tongue-tipper) is a word used by speakers to signal that they don't know or can't remember a more precise word for something--a "thingie," for instance, or a "thingamabob" (which The American Heritage Dictionary defines, not very helpfully, as a "thingamajig").
Some placeholders, such as "doodad" and "whatsit," are widely known. Others carry a more regional flavor: "gubbins" is favored by the British, "yoke" by the Irish. And some of the most peculiar tongue-tippers fall into the mysterious realm of family slang.
Here's a list of placeholders, some of which were submitted by our readers:
- dealie
- deelybob
- dingus
- doodad
- doohickey
- doojigger
- gadget
- geegaw or gewgaw
- gismo or gizmo
- gubbins
- hoozywhat
- jawn (heard in Philadelphia)
- junk
- stuff
- thing
- thingamajig
- thingamambob
- thingie
- whatchamacallem
- whatchamacallit
- whatchamajigger
- whatsit
- whatsitsname
- whatnot
- whosis or whosit
- whosey-wotsit (chiefly British)
- yoke
