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Is there a name for words like whatchamacallit, doohickey, thingamabob, doodad, thingamajig, whatsit, etc.?
Somehow it seems like there should be a word to describe the general term for a word that you use for referring to something when you cannot remember what it is called.
(Computing names like foo, bar, baz are examples of metasyntactic variables but those are a slightly different category.)
These are placeholders:
A placeholder is a word (such as whatchamacallit) used by speakers to signal that they don't know or can't remember a more precise word for something. Also known as a kadigan, tongue-tipper, and dummy noun.
ThoughtCo.
placeholder in a dictionary I get no reference to whatchamacallit, etc. (see dictionary.com/browse/placeholder and dictionary.com/browse/placeholder)
Although not a single word, you can call them "Vague Expressions"
. . .
We can use vague expressions when we are not sure of the name of something.
. . .
› Spoken English
In very informal speaking, we sometimes say /ˈwɒtʃjəməkɔ:lɪt/, /ˈwɒtʃjəməkɔ:lɪm/, /ˈθɪŋəmi/, /ˈθɪŋəmədʒɪg/... [cambridge.org/grammar]
The grammar article doesn't list all the question examples but I think they can be safely put in the same category. I am unaware of there being a single word with the precise meaning of "vague expression".
If you wanted to use a synecdoche figure of speech you could call them, say, "something-or-others" as in "Their explanation used too many something-or-others instead of the correct words for things".
