Meaning of substitute in English

substitute

verb

/ˈsʌb.stɪ.tʃuːt/ us

/ˈsʌb.stə.tuːt/

substitute verb (USE INSTEAD)

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B2 [ T ]

to use something or someone instead of another thing or person:

substitute something for something You can substitute oil for butter (= use oil instead of butter) in this recipe.

substitute something with something You can substitute the wheat flour with almond flour (= use almond flour instead of wheat flour).

be substituted for He made his film debut when he was substituted for the actor who was originally cast.

I took out the words "he" and "his" and substituted them with "they" and "their".

substitute for someone/something

to perform the same job as another thing or person or to take their place:

Gas-fired power stations will substitute for less efficient coal-fired equipment.

More examplesFewer examples

You can always substitute tofu for meat, if you like.
I use that recipe but substitute the cream with coconut milk.
Is it possible for you to substitute someone else to do your work?
Computers can't substitute for human interaction.
Of course, no book or course of study can substitute for experience.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Replacing and exchanging

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substitute verb (IN SPORT)

[ T usually passive ] sports specialized

in sports, to use a player for part of a game after removing another player from the game:

Ronaldo was substituted early in the second half.

Dayton was substituted for Williams in the second half of the game.

I don't know why the coach substituted me.

More examplesFewer examples

She showed her anger at being substituted.
The striker was substituted at half-time during the 1-1 draw.
The manager had no alternative but to substitute him.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Replacing and exchanging

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Competitors & participants in sports & games

substitute

noun [ C ]

/ˈsʌb.stɪ.tʃuːt/ us

/ˈsʌb.stə.tuːt/

a thing or person that is used instead of another thing or person:

Tofu can be used as a meat substitute in vegetarian recipes.

substitute for Vitamins should not be used as a substitute for a healthy diet.

(informal sub)

in sports, a player who is used for part of a game instead of another player:

come on as a substitute Johnson came on as a substitute towards the end of the game.

bring on a substitute The manager brought on another substitute in the final minutes of the game.

there is no substitute for something (also something is no substitute for something)

nothing is as good as the stated thing:

You can read about other countries, but there's no substitute for visiting them yourself.

(informal sub)

a substitute teacher

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I'm allowed to eat ersatz chocolate made from carob beans, but it's a poor substitute for the real thing.
Lime zest can be used as a substitute for lime leaves.
Email is all well and good but it's a poor substitute for a hand-written letter.
This is not intended as a substitute for a lawyer's advice.
There is no substitute for proper training.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Replacing and exchanging

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Competitors & participants in sports & games

Teachers

(Definition of substitute from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

substitute | American Dictionary

substitute

verb [ I/T ]

/ˈsʌb·stɪˌtut/

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to use someone or something instead of another person or thing:

[ T ] You can substitute oil for butter in this recipe.

[ I ] He was called on to substitute for the ailing star last night.

substitute

noun [ C ] us

/ˈsʌb·stɪˌtut/

Talk is a poor substitute for action.

(Definition of substitute from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

substitute | Business English

substitute

verb

/ˈsʌbstɪtjuːt/ us

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[ T ]

to use something different or new instead of another thing:

substitute sth for sth Industry must reduce fuel consumption by substituting alternative fuels for fossil fuels.

substitute sth with sth It takes time to substitute local brands with your own brand names.

substitute for sb [ I ]

WORKPLACE

to take the place of another person or do their job for a period of time:

She was asked to substitute for the absent committee chairman.

substitute for sth [ I ]

to do the same job as another thing or take its place:

The government expects natural gas to substitute for oil exports in the future.

Many dot.com companies have learnt that technology can never substitute for customer service.

substitute

noun [ C ]

/ˈsʌbstɪtjuːt/ us

something different or new that is used instead of another thing:

(as) a substitute for sth We are looking at the possibility of using foreign production as a substitute for exports to foreign markets.

cheap/good/poor substitutes Cheaper substitutes displaced the product from the world market.

egg/fat/meat substitutes

Early warning of a layoff is no substitute for a job.

WORKPLACE

someone who takes the place of another person or does their job for a period of time:

a substitute for sb Fixed-term contract workers and agency workers are not always direct substitutes for one another.

there's no substitute for sth/doing sth

nothing else is as good as the stated thing or action:

In this industry, there's no substitute for experience.

(Definition of substitute from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of substitute

substitute

As a consequence, these variables can in fact be substituted out, although for reasons of clarity we shall not do so here.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, the effect of substituting answers is that unevaluated arguments in the environment of closures are duplicated.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Consequently, substituted or newly coined terms may acquire meanings that were not intended by their instigators.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Moreover, not only was the coinage substituted, the whole class system and economic life underwent a total transformation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Perhaps the weakness of this view can be made clearer simply by substituting concrete historical terms for abstract labels.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

From here the idea to decrease the deadweight losses, substituting environmental tax revenues for labor taxes revenues inducing the so-called 'revenue recycling effect'.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The analytical procedure has involved substituting simplified indices for discrete measures of these perceptions.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Expert systems originated in the 1970s as computer programs capable of imitating human experts and even substituting them when necessary.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In essence, the new welfare puts the onus of responsibility on recipients rather than government and substitutes an 'obligation' for an 'entitlement' form of provision.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Other reports made similar assertions, but substituted snakes, 'seven to eight feet in length', for the beetles.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Then, the so-obtained values of the integration constants are substituted back into the integrated equations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The expressions (6.2) are substituted into (5.6) and (5.8) which are then linearized with respect to the constants marked with a tilde.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

However, theory requires exact solutions that can be substituted into new theories.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Thus, the intertemporal substitutability in consumption of the second good "undoes" the effect of the indivisibility by substituting percentages in time for probabilities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Users of text search engines use various strategies for refinement including substituting broader and narrower terms to increase or decrease the number of hits, respectively.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of substitute

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with substitute

substitute

These are words often used in combination with substitute.

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acceptable substitute

Orleans 201 ' contains sermons, 'liturgical dramas' (a term that has been questioned, but without a universally acceptable substitute) and a few sequences.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

adequate substitute

What happens, for example, when representation is no longer merely mimesis but a more than adequate substitute, when paper becomes more or better than gold?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

blood substitute

Every overseas theatre is supplied from this country with a stock of preserved blood substitute.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

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What is the pronunciation of substitute?

Translations of substitute

in Chinese (Traditional)

用…代替，代之以, 替代品，代替物, （體育比賽中的）替補隊員…

in Chinese (Simplified)

用…代替，代之以, 替代品，代替物, （体育比赛中的）替补队员…

in Spanish

sustituir, sustituto, sustituta…

in Portuguese

substituir, substituto, substituta…

in more languages

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in Italian

ऐवजी, बदली, बदली खेळाडू…

代わりの人（物）, 代理人, 代用品…

vekil, yedek, yerine koymak…

remplacer, remplaçant/-ante, succédané [masculine]…

substitut, -a, substituir…

vervangen, plaatsvervangend…

மற்றொரு விஷயம் அல்லது நபருக்கு பதிலாக ஏதாவது அல்லது ஒருவரைப் பயன்படுத்த, மற்றொரு விஷயம் அல்லது நபருக்கு பதிலாக பயன்படுத்தப்படும் ஒரு விஷயம் அல்லது நபர், விளையாட்டுகளில்…

के स्थान पर, किसी चीज़ के विकल्प के रूप में प्रयुक्त होना, विकल्प…

કંઈક માટે અવેજી તરીકે, ની જગ્યાએ વપરાયેલ, વિકલ્પ…

udskifte med, erstatning, reserve…

ersätta, vikariera för, ersättare…

ganti, orang gantian…

ersetzen, der Ersatz, Ersatz-……