Pretend and Substitute

Pretend

Pretend adjective - Being such in appearance only and made with or manufactured from usually cheaper materials.
Usage example: if you were to see the movie's pretend jewels in real life, you wouldn't be fooled for a minute

Substitute and pretend are semantically related. In some cases you can use "Substitute" instead an adjective "Pretend".

Substitute

Substitute adjective - Being such in appearance only and made with or manufactured from usually cheaper materials.
Usage example: substitute wools that supposedly have the look and feel of cashmere

Pretend and substitute are semantically related. Sometimes you can use "Pretend" instead an adjective "Substitute".

Common collocations

woman pretend woman substitute woman
name pretend name substitute name
song pretend song substitute song

Both words in one sentence

  • Literature / What She Left Behind Suspiciously Similar Substitute: An interesting example - Sara and eventually her father sometimes pretend that Zachary is Matt so that it doesn't feel like as much of a loss to them.
Cite this Source
Substitute and Pretend. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 28, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/pretend/substitute
Pretend & Substitute. N.p., 2016. Web. 28 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/pretend/substitute>.
Substitute or Pretend. 2016. Accessed July 28, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/pretend/substitute.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "pretend" and "substitute" have occurred on timeline