replacement
Americannoun
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the act of replacing.
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a person or thing that replaces another.
summer replacements for vacationing staff; a replacement for a broken dish.
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Military. a sailor, soldier, or airman assigned to fill a vacancy in a military unit.
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Also called metasomatism. Geology. the process of practically simultaneous removal and deposition by which a new mineral grows in the body of an old one.
noun
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the act or process of replacing
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a person or thing that replaces another
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geology the growth of a mineral within another of different chemical composition by gradual simultaneous deposition and removal
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Also called: petrification. a process of fossilization by gradual substitution of mineral matter for the original organic matter
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of replacement
Explanation
A replacement is the thing that fills in for something that's missing, or the act of substituting for the missing thing. The replacement for your absent teacher is an annoying substitute. Sigh. When kids lose their baby teeth, replacements soon grow in their places. And when kids need to have their teeth cleaned but their dentist is on vacation, her replacement will be in charge of taking x-rays and checking for cavities. Replacement comes from the verb replace, which adds the "back" prefix re- to place, "to put somewhere."
Vocabulary lists containing replacement
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
DWP engineers weigh those factors when prioritizing pipes for replacement, assigning a letter grade to each water main based on its likelihood of failure and the potential consequences of a break.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
The Maine Democratic Party will hold its convention to nominate a replacement for Graham Platner in the Senate race this weekend.
From Slate ● Jul. 25, 2026
Supplemental testosterone can change that, of course, and Secretary Hegseth said that military personnel of either sex could choose to receive testosterone replacement therapy if treatment was recommended.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Jefferson offered to sell his own impressive library of 6,500 volumes to the U.S. government as a replacement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Kleptocracies with little public support run the risk of being overthrown, either by downtrodden commoners or by upstart would-be replacement kleptocrats seeking public support by promising a higher ratio of services rendered to fruits stolen.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
At the same time, those efforts should not be presented as replacements for deeper changes within organizations.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 25, 2026
However, England replacements Henry Pollock and Emmanuel Iyogun were next to be sent to the sin-bin, making for a nervy finish.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
Before Slaughter, presidents who wanted to reshape a multimember commission generally needed to wait for the commissioners’ terms to expire to nominate replacements who shared their policy preferences.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
Because he doesn’t have a natural position, he’s almost more valuable to coaches as a substitute—or, as Arteta calls his replacements, one of his “finishers.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Troops already over there will be whooping and hollering to see us replacements show up.
From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
