"substitutes" in the noun sense
1. substitute, replacement
a person or thing that takes or can take the place of another
2. substitute, reserve, second-stringer
an athlete who plays only when a starter on the team is replaced
3. stand-in, substitute, relief, reliever, backup, backup man, fill-in
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"
"substitutes" in the verb sense
1. substitute, replace, interchange, exchange
put in the place of another switch seemingly equivalent items
"the con artist replaced the original with a fake Rembrandt"
"substitute regular milk for fat-free milk"
"synonyms can be interchanged without a changing the context's meaning"
2. substitute, sub, stand in, fill in
be a substitute
"The young teacher had to substitute for the sick colleague"
"The skim milk substitutes for cream
3. substitute, deputize, deputise, step in
act as a substitute
"She stood in for the soprano who suffered from a cold"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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