substitution
Britishnoun
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the act of substituting or state of being substituted
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something or someone substituted
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maths the replacement of a term of an equation by another that is known to have the same value in order to simplify the equation
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maths logic
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the uniform replacement of one expression by another
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an expression so derived from another
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Explanation
The noun substitution refers to the act of replacing one thing with another. Your football coach might make a substitution by sending you onto the field to take over for a player who is tired or injured. Substitution comes from the Middle French word of the same spelling, meaning "a putting in place of another." You might notice that substitution contains the root word substitute, and that's a good way to remember the meaning of the word. In school, a substitute is a temporary teacher who fills in when your regular teacher is out — in other words, a substitution has been made until your teacher returns.
Vocabulary lists containing substitution
Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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Genetics - Middle School
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A Soccer and a Football Special
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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.
For many, pets are a form of social substitution.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 28, 2026
The substitution of workers “in favor of machines will accelerate as we go forward into AI.”
From MarketWatch • May 19, 2026
Pedro Aznar, an economist at the Spanish business school Esade, also said Spain is profiting from a "substitution effect".
From Barron's • May 18, 2026
The game's governing body supplied historical samples which, when retested, showed five instances of sample substitution involving Sharikadze and five other players, dating back to 2019.
From BBC • May 12, 2026
Egyptian hieroglyphics are, in significant part, a simple substitution cipher.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
