Meaning & Definition of Substitute in English
English⟶
Substitute
/səbstətut/
noun
1. A person or thing that takes or can take the place of another
synonym:
- substitute,
- replacement
2. An athlete who plays only when a starter on the team is replaced
synonym:
- substitute,
- reserve,
- second-stringer
3. Someone who takes the place of another (as when things get dangerous or difficult)
- "The star had a stand-in for dangerous scenes"
- "We need extra employees for summer fill-ins"
synonym:
- stand-in,
- substitute,
- relief,
- reliever,
- backup,
- backup man,
- fill-in
verb
1. Put in the place of another
- Switch seemingly equivalent items
- "The con artist replaced the original with a fake rembrandt"
- "Substitute regular milk with fat-free milk"
- "Synonyms can be interchanged without a changing the context's meaning"
synonym:
- substitute,
- replace,
- interchange,
- exchange
2. Be a substitute
- "The young teacher had to substitute for the sick colleague"
- "The skim milk substitutes for cream--we are on a strict diet"
synonym:
- substitute,
- sub,
- stand in,
- fill in
3. Act as a substitute
- "She stood in for the soprano who suffered from a cold"
synonym:
- substitute,
- deputize,
- deputise,
- step in
adjective
1. Capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team
- "A utility infielder"
synonym:
- utility(a),
- substitute(a)
2. Serving or used in place of another
- "An alternative plan"
synonym:
- alternate,
- alternative,
- substitute
3. Artificial and inferior
- "Ersatz coffee"
- "Substitute coffee"
synonym:
- ersatz,
- substitute
Examples of using
Time has come to admit that hard work and hope are no substitute for actual knowledge.
"ASCII quotes" are a substitute character for the “real” quotes that vary from language to language, and the advent of Unicode have rendered ASCII quotes obsolete.
We encounter similar difficulties when we substitute rectangles for triangles in this configuration.