A specific word or set of words identified as a placeholder used in programming. They are used to name entities such as variables, functions, etc, whose exact identity is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept, which is useful for teaching programming.
Common examples include foobar, foo, bar, baz, and qux.
Python has its own metasyntactic variables, namely spam, eggs, and bacon. This is a reference to a Monty Python sketch (the eponym of the language).
More information:
- History of foobar
- Monty Python sketch