"substitute" 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"

"substitute" 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"

"substitute" in the adjective sense

1. utility, substitute

capable of substituting in any of several positions on a team

"a utility infielder"

2. alternate, alternative, substitute

serving or used in place of another

"an alternative plan"

3. ersatz, substitute

artificial and inferior

"ersatz coffee"

"substitute coffee"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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