surrogate

American  

[sur-uh-geyt, -git, suhr-, sur-uh-geyt, suhr-] / ˈsɜr əˌgeɪt, -gɪt, ˈsʌr-, ˈsɜr əˌgeɪt, ˈsʌr- /

noun

• surrogates
  plural

1. a person appointed to act for another; deputy.

2. (in some states) a judicial officer having jurisdiction over the probate of wills, the administration of estates, etc.

3. the deputy of an ecclesiastical judge, especially of a bishop or a bishop's chancellor.

4. a substitute.

5. a surrogate mother.

6. Politics. someone who acts on behalf of a politician or political candidate by making public appearances, issuing statements, etc., when that person is engaged elsewhere or when that person’s image would be bolstered by certain affiliations.

   His camp won the “prestige of science” battle by signing on high-profile physicists, chemists, and biologists as campaign surrogates.

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adjective

1. regarded or acting as a surrogate.

   a surrogate father.

2. involving or indicating the use of a surrogate mother to conceive or carry an embryo.

   surrogate parenting.

verb (used with object)

surrogated, surrogating

1. to put into the place of another as a successor, substitute, or deputy; substitute for another.

2. to subrogate.

surrogate British  

noun

1. a person or thing acting as a substitute

2. a deputy, such as a clergyman appointed to deputize for a bishop in granting marriage licences

3. psychiatry a person who is a substitute for someone else, esp in childhood when different persons, such as a brother or teacher, can act as substitutes for the parents

4. (in some US states) a judge with jurisdiction over the probate of wills, etc

5. (modifier) of, relating to, or acting as a surrogate

   a surrogate pleasure

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verb

1. to put in another's position as a deputy, substitute, etc

2. to appoint as a successor to oneself

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• surrogateship
  noun
• surrogation
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• surrogates
  plural

Etymology

Origin of surrogate

First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin surrogātus, variant of subrogātus “nominated as a substitiute”; see subrogate

Explanation

Someone who acts as a surrogate takes the place of another person. If a celebrity leaves her seat to use the restroom in the middle of a big Hollywood awards ceremony, a surrogate will take her place until she returns. Surrogate comes from the Latin word surrogare, which means "to put in another's place," or "to substitute." An uncle might refer to his niece as a surrogate child if they are very close, especially if he doesn't have his own biological children. Since 1978, surrogate has also been used to describe a woman who carries and delivers a baby for another person or couple.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

surrogate surrogates surrogated surrogating

Now with the Vogue article, the “Too Much” creator explains her experience finding a surrogate she could trust.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

These new tools could let osteoarthritis meet the third condition: a surrogate endpoint, meaning an MRI scan or blood-test result likely to predict whether a patient’s joint is improving.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

“The Office,” with its belief in finding salvation and love through the surrogate family at your soul-sucking work job, was millennial, but so was the shaggy anti-ambition of “Workaholics.”

From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026

The so-called baby Gabriel case began when McKenna West, a surrogate from Alaska, learned that the child she was carrying had hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a serious congenital disease.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026

Sometimes, you know, the standard passion surrogate isn’t quite ...”

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

First, in December, the Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese tech billionaire Xu Bo had used surrogates based in the U.S. to father more than 100 children.

From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026

Numerous Black elected officials have campaigned and served as surrogates for him, including influential Black Democrats Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and state Sen. Royce West of Dallas.

From Salon ● Jun. 25, 2026

One video, which his campaign said neither he nor formal surrogates made, portrayed him as Batman lobbing tomatoes at Bass, who was dressed as the Joker.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026

Instead of enlisting surrogates to push an uplifting vision for L.A.’s future, Pratt elevates those who speak of the city as a West Coast Chernobyl.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

Each assemblage is poised in the flow of solar energy, tapping off energy from metabolic surrogates of the sun.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

It is about past glories, power transference, surrogated combat and unconscious contests of generation and gender.

From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2011

The lamentable distresse and pitifull perplexitie of the Britains after their ouerthrow, Domitian enuieth Agricola the glorie of his victories, he is subtilie depriued of his deputiship, and Cneus Trebellius surrogated in his roome.

From Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (4 of 8) The Fovrth Booke Of The Historie Of England by Raphael Holinshed

“Do I understand that it’s likely that people who’ve been involved in the center of this for some time, and have been surrogating on television, are likely front-runners? I would say that’s likely, yes.”

From Washington Post ● Nov. 15, 2016

But the Bishop returneth to another example in Solomon, which is the putting of Abiathar, the chief priest, from his office, and surrogating of another in his place.

From The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) by George Gillespie

Whence I had recourse to Chilperick, whom the peaple, tho legittime heir, first deposed then cowed him, and thrust him in a Monastry surrogating Pepin his brother in his roome.

From Publications of the Scottish History Society, Volume 36 Journals of Sir John Lauder Lord Fountainhall with His Observations on Public Affairs and Other Memoranda 1665-1676 by Lord John Lauder Fountainhall

Related Words

• proxy
• stand-in