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# substitution

«substitution» in Mova's school dictionary: **putting one person or thing in the place of another** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a substitution, substitutions; substitution, uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A substitution is putting one person or thing in the place of another. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#m1)

2) (sport) A substitution is when a player is taken off and another player comes on. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#m2)

3) (maths) Substitution means replacing a letter in an expression or formula with a number, to work out its value. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#m3)

4) (cooking) A substitution is using a different ingredient instead of the one in the recipe. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths lessons substitution is a key algebra skill: «If a = 3, find 2a + 1» — you substitute 3 for a to get 7. In science, a substitution reaction swaps atoms. In sport it is changing players. In codes, a substitution cipher swaps letters for other letters. Phrases: make a substitution, by substitution, substitution cipher.

### examples

- The coach made a substitution at half-time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x1)
- By substitution, if x = 4, then 3x = 12. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x2)
- Use substitution to check your answer to the equation. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x3)
- We used honey as a substitution for sugar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x4)
- In a substitution cipher, A might become D and B might become E. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x5)
- Two substitutions changed the whole match. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x6)
- Substitution of the ingredients made the cake taste different. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/#x7)

### note

Verb substitute: you substitute the new thing FOR the old one (substitute 5 for x). In maths, put brackets when substituting negatives: if a = −2, a² = (−2)² = 4. Countable for single changes (two substitutions).

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «substitution» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/substitution/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.