instead
[in-sted]
- as a substitute or replacement; in the place or stead of someone or something: We ordered tea but were served coffee instead.
- in preference; as a preferred or accepted alternative: The city has its pleasures, but she wished instead for the quiet of country life.
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- instead of, in place of; in lieu of: You can use milk instead of cream in this recipe.
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Origin of instead
1175–1225; Middle English; orig. phrase in stead in place
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for instead
Contemporary Examples
Instead, straighten your civic backbone and push back in clear conscience.
Instead, the man and woman in the truck wanted to know where the crash site was and whether would I show them.
Instead, spa hotels filled up with over 30,000 refugees from the war-troubled Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
But this year, instead of simply voting against Boehner on Tuesday, at least two members of the group are vying to replace him.
Instead, I spend much of my time criticizing my fellow atheists.
Historical Examples
I wish my father had intrusted his money to you instead of to the superintendent.
Brave and BoldHoratio Alger
Instead, now we are building bonds with nations that once were our adversaries.
Instead, it presents, what all too few of us to-day possess, a philosophy of life.
The Conquest of FearBasil King
It will only be me instead of him, and that's no difference; he belongs to me as much as I do to him.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Instead he took his lady away, and they were lost in the crowd.
Ester Ried Yet SpeakingIsabella Alden
instead
- as a replacement, substitute, or alternative
- instead of (preposition) in place of or as an alternative to
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Word Origin
C13: from phrase in stead in place
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for instead
adv.
1590s, from Middle English ine stede (early 13c.; see stead); loan-translation of Latin in loco (French en lieu de). Still often two words until c.1640.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper