substitutes

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of substitute.

   Both substitutes scored within minutes of entering the game.

   Plant-based substitutes have replaced meat in many household kitchens.

   Note

   The plural covers every kind of stand-in the noun can name: ingredients and products, players waiting to come on, teachers who fill in for absent colleagues, and, historically, men who enlisted in place of conscripts. The same spelling is also the verb's present-tense form, so context decides. The coach's substitutes are people on the bench, while she substitutes describes an action.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of substitute.

   The chef substitutes olive oil for butter in the lighter dishes.

   Whenever a player gets injured, the manager substitutes a fresh one immediately.

   Note

   Here the trap is the preposition, not the -s. With for, the new thing comes first: the chef substitutes olive oil for butter, and the butter is what goes. With with, the order flips, and the thing named first is the one removed. Without an object, substitutes for means stands in for, as when one teacher covers another's class.

   The recipe substitutes honey with maple syrup, so no honey is used at all.

   She substitutes for the regular teacher every Friday.

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