A place card is a small card bearing a guest’s name, it is positioned at the seat where that guest is designated to sit. A place card is helpful at formal affairs where many guests may not know each other, they may use the cards to remember their table mates’ names. Place cards are also helpful in positioning guests to mingle. Place card is sometimes seen hyphenated as in place-card, but the Oxford English Dictionary does not recognize this spelling. The plural form is place cards.
A placard is a printed poster or small sign that is intended for for public display. A placard may be hung on a wall or carried in a protest or demonstration. The word placard may also be used as a verb, meaning to cover something in placards. Related words are placards, placarded, placarding. Placard comes from the Old French word plaquier, which means to plaster over or cover up.
Examples
Each plate was decorated with a folded white napkin and a simple place card on top. (Vogue Magazine)
They were a string of garland, but we cut them apart and made them into place card holders. (The Daily News Journal)
The suspense was lessened by the fact that his place card at the table was emblazoned with UCLA. (The Dallas Morning News)
For a play on place cards, you could slice the top off a mini pumpkin and put the place card on top. (Denver Magazine)
A woman has been charged with theft after reportedly shoplifting Wednesday at Kohl’s and also stealing a handicap placard. (The Journal Times)
The signs, symbols, buttons, and placards that saturated wardrobes, convention photographs, and Wells Fargo Center trashcans are real and nontrivial examples of unity, conviction, and genuine belief in the power of politics. (The Atlantic Magazine)
Islamic State released another video one day after the attack that purportedly showed the two men: one with a scarf around his head, holding a placard with an Islamic State slogan, and the other clad in military fatigues. (The Sydney Morning Herald)