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ersatz

[er-zahts, -sahts, er-zahts, -sahts]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

serving as a substitute; synthetic; artificial: an ersatz coffee made from grain.

noun

an artificial substance or article used to replace something natural or genuine; a substitute.

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Ersatz is always a great word to know.

So is lollapalooza. Does it mean:

a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.

an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

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Origin:
1870–75; < German Ersatz a substitute (derivative of ersetzen to replace)

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To ersatz

Example Sentences

The ersatz reefs, meanwhile, were good for marine ecosystems and local economies alike.

Our unions are often the final barrier against unsafe roads and hospitals, ersatz education and filth in our food.

Pity the lunatic fringe, poring over the lexicon to find an ersatz euphemism for suicide.

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The ersatz reefs, meanwhile, were good for marine ecosystems and local economies alike.

Our unions are often the final barrier against unsafe roads and hospitals, ersatz education and filth in our food.

Pity the lunatic fringe, poring over the lexicon to find an ersatz euphemism for suicide.

The ersatz oysters, sad in their dipping sauce, spoke all too clearly about my life.

One day the ersatz seascape will likely become the real thing.

As if their compelling native characteristics had been replaced by ersatz versions.

The retailers' dilemma has spurred a proliferation of software and other tools that can help ferret out ersatz orders.

Smith never advocated inventing expensive ersatz for something that could be simply bought for a reasonable sum of money.

Some people may feel tempted to store and run simulations of themselves, thus achieving an ersatz immortality.

While imposing ersatz fun on their employees, companies are battling against the real thing.

Allowing such ersatz lending is a pretence by booksellers.

As ersatz investment banks, they make short- and long-term loans and take equity stakes.

Thing is though the desire for ersatz villages hasn't gone away, and continues to kill off real ones.

Ersatz roofs made of solar panels have sprouted above dozens of school parking lots in the state.

American academics have domesticated these radical totalitarian thinkers by blending them with an ersatz individualism.

While his ersatz safari is oceans away from the real.

Congress should resist an ersatz reform that would allow lenders to continue to charge exorbitant interest rates on payday loans.

In lieu of cushy cabanas and dainty umbrellas are rickety wooden tables and slabs of wood serving as ersatz beach chairs.

Shopping malls began to transform themselves from covered boxes into ersatz downtowns open to the elements.

On either side of the entrance, a few feet from each of the ersatz flagpoles, are little guard huts.

Because clean dishes remain in the washer, the table becomes an ersatz cupboard between meals.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

ersatz (ˈɛəzæts, ˈɜː-)

—*adj*
1.	made in imitation of some natural or genuine product; artificial

—n
2.	an ersatz substance or article

[C20: German, from ersetzen to substitute]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon

Main Entry:	ersatz¹
Part of Speech:	adj
Definition:	substitute, artificial and often inferior; using substitute components
Etymology:	German 'replacement'

Main Entry:	ersatz¹
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	an artificial substitute; imitation
Etymology:	German 'replacement'

Main Entry:	ersatz²
Part of Speech:	adj
Definition:	simulated, counterfeit
Etymology:	German 'replacement'

Main Entry:	ersatz²
Part of Speech:	n
Definition:	something similar in a superficial way
Etymology:	German 'replacement'

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

ersatz

1875, from Ger. Ersatz "units of the army reserve," lit. "compensation, replacement, substitute," from ersetzen "to replace."

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"How, in one short century, has this ersatz sport so strangled the consciousness of the country in the grip of its flabby tentacles that the mention of women's baseball gets no reaction other than blank amazement?"

-Darlene Mehrer

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ersatz

er·satz