place·hold·erBrE/ˈpleɪshəʊldə(r)/NAmE/ˈpleɪshoʊldər/noun(specialist) asymbolorpieceoftextwhichreplacessththatismissing(替代缺失部分的)占位符,占位文字(linguistics语言学) anitemwhichisnecessaryinasentence, butdoesnothaverealmeaning, forexampletheword'it'in'It'sapitysheleft.'位标(句子中必要但无实际意义的词项,如 It's a pity she left 中的 it)