replacement
Americannoun
-
replacements
plural
-
the act of replacing.
-
a person or thing that replaces another.
summer replacements for vacationing staff; a replacement for a broken dish.
-
Military. a sailor, soldier, or airman assigned to fill a vacancy in a military unit.
-
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
-
the act or process of replacing
-
a person or thing that replaces another
-
geology the growth of a mineral within another of different chemical composition by gradual simultaneous deposition and removal
-
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:
Kyiv's hulking CHPs date back to the 1970s and 1980s during Soviet times, and the stock of replacement parts to patch up damage is running low.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
Once again, however, the Seagulls' enviable data-led recruitment model, aided by club owner Tony Bloom's close links to Jamestown Analytics, appears to have found a promising replacement.
From BBC ● Oct. 19, 2026
Netflix on Thursday said its Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria is leaving the company and named former Disney executive Peter Rice as her replacement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
While Canadian Pacific Kansas City has solid growth prospects outside of grain, CN Rail has “fewer obvious replacement growth drivers,” they write.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026
"That's the science of designing replacement parts for the human body."
From "Freak The Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick
Costs can pile up as hospitals fill gaps with more expensive, often contract, workers and try to recruit and train full-time replacements, he’s found.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026
Famously, his big break came when Roseanne Barr decided to fire all the writers on “Roseanne,” then the No. 1 show in the country; Lorre was hired as one of the replacements.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
In terms of natural centre-forward replacements for Kane, England do not have much depth.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Musk canceled Tesla’s luxury Models S and X without replacements as he focuses on fully autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
She offered to let me interview Carla’s potential replacements, but I declined.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions 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.
