surrogate

American  

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

noun

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

• surrogateship noun
• surrogation noun

Etymology

Origin of surrogate

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

Example Sentences

“If you’re investing in small data sets and relying on surrogate endpoints, the risk has simply become too high,” says Simos Simeonidis, managing partner and co-founder of Kos Biotechnology Partners, an investment fund.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 3, 2026

Nkanu was one of twin boys born in 2024, using a surrogate.

From BBC • Feb. 26, 2026

So being a single father by choice is a rarer phenomenon, and doing so via gestational surrogacy, in which the surrogate mother bears no genetic link to the child she carries, is rarer yet.

From Slate • Feb. 23, 2026

The cub’s selfish decisions lead to the tree laying itself across a chasm to save its surrogate child.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 16, 2026

“The surrogate goes round slower; therefore passes through the lung at longer intervals; therefore gives the embryo less oxygen. Nothing like oxygen-shortage for keeping an embryo below par.”

From "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

Related Words

• proxy
• stand-in