Synonyms of substitutes

substitutes 1 of 2

noun

plural of substitute

as in replacements

a person or thing that takes the place of another

you'll be getting a substitute until your regular teacher is feeling better

if you like, you can use nuts as a substitute for coconut in that recipe

Synonyms & Similar Words

• replacements
• backups
• surrogates
• assistants
• subs
• reserves
• proxies
• covers
• stand-ins
• reliefs
• alternates
• fill-ins
• pinch hitters
• deputies
• designated hitters
• delegates
• locum tenentes
• agents
• makeshifts
• apologies
• seconds
• factors
• representatives
• understudies
• successors
• assignees
• commissaries
• attorneys
• reps
• relievers
• stopgaps
• envoys
• procurators
• superseders

substitutes

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of substitute

1

as in swaps

to give up (something) and take something else in return

can I substitute coleslaw for potato salad if I order the chicken plate?

Synonyms & Similar Words

• swaps
• exchanges
• trades
• changes
• replaces
• switches
• shifts
• commutes
• supersedes
• interchanges
• displaces
• yields
• surrenders
• cedes
• reciprocates
• hands over

2

as in spells

to serve as a replacement usually for a time only

substituting for the talk show host while she is on vacation

Synonyms & Similar Words

• spells
• subs
• covers
• stands in
• fills in
• takes over
• steps in
• pinch-hits
• understudies
• relieves
• doubles (as)

3

as in replaces

to take the place of

"John Doe," "Jane Doe," and "Baby Doe" substituted the real names of the parties involved to preserve their privacy

Synonyms & Similar Words

• replaces
• supersedes
• supplants
• relieves
• displants
• displaces
• usurps
• cuts out
• preempts

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of substitutes

Noun

Following the report, the teacher, who last worked for the district on April 2, was removed from the district’s list of available substitutes. —Brittany Miller, FOXNews.com, 24 Apr. 2026

One patient born without an olfactory bulb could smell because other parts of her brain remolded to serve as substitutes. —Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta Magazine, 24 Apr. 2026

Popular flour substitutes include rice, oat and almond flours, tapioca, corn and potato starches and xanthan gum. —Jolene Thym, Mercury News, 23 Apr. 2026

Material World is a weekly roundup of innovations and ideas within the materials sector, covering what’s changing in how fashion is made, scaled or engineered from emerging biomaterials and alternative leathers to sustainable substitutes and future-proof fibers. —Alexandra Harrell, Footwear News, 23 Apr. 2026

An entrepreneur and influential food activist in the Make America Healthy Again movement, Hari gives regular shoutouts to substitutes for snacks that contain corn syrup, seed oils, and other ingredients on health-conscious Americans’ blacklist. —Sarah Todd, STAT, 22 Apr. 2026

Most substitutes will not deliver the protein, calories and micronutrients necessary to support the growth and development of premature newborns. —Alexander Crider, Chicago Tribune, 17 Apr. 2026

Oil has substitutes, strategic reserves, and secondary markets. —Eyck Freymann, Time, 17 Apr. 2026

Resident teachers, or teachers in training, will be the substitutes. —Lacey Beasley, CBS News, 15 Apr. 2026

Verb

Agreed, but this bill substitutes the long, painstaking and complex work of fixing California’s troubled insurance market with finger-pointing and posturing. —Steven Greenhut, Oc Register, 12 Apr. 2026

Rosenson said that if CRISPR is a scissor that cuts both strands of DNA, base editing is an eraser that substitutes one chemical letter, or base, in a single strand of DNA. —David Cox, NBC news, 6 Apr. 2026

Ramps substitutes Because their season is so short, ramps can be hard to track down. —Kelly Vaughan, Bon Appetit Magazine, 23 Mar. 2026

Once that trio had run themselves into the ground, substitutes Moore, Josh Windass and Nathan Broadhead took over to keep the pressure on. —Richard Sutcliffe, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2026

Young Man in a Hurry substitutes status anxiety for race. —Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 24 Feb. 2026

This kind of both-sides-ism, increasingly common in right-leaning partisan media ecosystems, substitutes balance of the blame for balance of the facts. —Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 16 Feb. 2026

Executive interpretation increasingly substitutes for legislative intent. —Alejandro Reyes, Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2026

Target’s four-person meal costs less than $20, about the same as in 2024, but substitutes green beans and cream of mushroom soup for French bread and frozen corn — also not an apples-to-apples comparison. —Dave Smith, Fortune, 8 Nov. 2025