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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ersatz.

An inauthentic or inadequate substitute or imitation.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈɛəzæts/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɜːsæts//ˈɛəɹsɑts/US/ˈɛəɹzɑts/

  1. An inauthentic or inadequate substitute or imitation.

    Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti Proto-Germanic *satjaną Proto-West Germanic *sattjan Proto-West Germanic *uʀsattjan Old High German irsezzen Middle High German ersetzen German ersetzenbf. German Ersatzbor. English ersatz Borrowed from German Ersatz (“replacement, substitute”), a back-formation from ersetzen (“to replace, to substitute”).

noun/ˈɛəzæts/Received-Pronunciation/ˈɜːsæts//ˈɛəɹsɑts/US/ˈɛəɹzɑts/

  1. Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ud-s-? Proto-Indo-European *h₂u-s-? Proto-Germanic *uz- Proto-West Germanic *uʀ- Proto-Indo-European *sed- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *sodéyeti Proto-Germanic *satjaną Proto-West Germanic *sattjan Proto-West Germanic *uʀsattjan Old High German irsezzen Middle High German ersetzen German ersetzenbf. German Ersatzbor. English ersatz Borrowed from German Ersatz (“replacement, substitute”), a back-formation from ersetzen (“to replace, to substitute”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.