instead

English

Alternative forms

• enstead, in steed, in stead (all obsolete)

Etymology

From in +‎ stead, from Middle English ine (“in”) + stede (“stead”). Related to German statt.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĭn-stěd', IPA^(key): /ɪnˈstɛd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛd

Adverb

instead (not comparable)

1. In the place of something (usually mentioned earlier); as a substitute or alternative.

   I was going to go shopping, but I went dancing instead.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’

   • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:

     Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, […]. A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.

Synonyms

• in lieu

Derived terms

• instead of

Translations

in the place of (it)

Albanian: në vend të, në vend që Arabic: بَدَلاً مِن (badalan min) Aramaic: Syriac: ܚܠܦ (ħlap) Assamese: -অৰ সলনি (-or xoloni), আনহাতে (anhate) Bashkir: урынына (urınına) Bengali: পরিবর্তে (bn) (poriborte) Breton: kentoc'h (br) Bulgarian: вме́сто (bg) (vmésto) Chinese: Mandarin: 代替 (zh) (dàitì), 抵作 (dǐzuò) Coptic: ⲁⲛⲧⲓ (anti) Czech: namísto (cs), místo toho Danish: i stedet, i stedet for Dutch: in plaats daarvan Esperanto: anstataŭe Finnish: asemasta (fi), sen sijaan, sen sijasta, tilalle French: à la place (fr), au lieu de (fr), plutôt (fr) German: stattdessen (de), anstatt (de) Greek: αντί (el) (antí) Hebrew: במקום Hindi: के बजाय (ke bajāy) Hungarian: helyette (hu), inkább (hu) Icelandic: í staðinn, í stað þess Indonesian: malah (id) Irish: ina ionad, ina áit Italian: in luogo di, invece (it), al posto di Japanese: ...の代わりに (ja) (...no kawari-ni) Korean: 대신에 (ko) (daesine) Macedonian: наместо (namesto), место (mesto) Norwegian: isteden (no), i staden, i stedet (no) Polish: zamiast (pl) Portuguese: em vez de (pt), ao invés de (pt), antes (pt) Romanian: în loc de Russian: вме́сто (ru) (vmésto) (+ genitive case) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: место / misto / мјесто, уместо / умјесто Roman: mesto (sh) / misto / mjesto (sh), umesto / umjesto, u zamjenu Sicilian: mmeci, scanciu Slovene: namésto Spanish: en vez de, en lugar de (es), en vez/lugar de ello/aqueso, mejor (es), en su lugar Swedish: istället (sv) Thai: แทน (th) (taen) Turkish: yerine (tr) Ukrainian: нато́мість (natómistʹ) Venetan: invése, invéze, inveẑe (vec) Vietnamese: thay vì (vi)

Anagrams

• destain, stained, Tiendas, Danites, d'ansite, Sidetan, taneids, indates, sainted, satined, nidates, detains, tiendas