Rival vs Substitute - What's the difference?
rival | substitute |
A competitor (person, team, company, etc.) with the same goal as another, or striving to attain the same thing. Defeating a rival may be a primary or necessary goal of a competitor.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Someone or something with similar claims of quality or distinction as another.
(obsolete) One having a common right or privilege with another; a partner.
* (William Shakespeare)
Having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.
* Macaulay
To oppose or compete with.
To be equal to or to surpass another.
*{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
, title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=1 To strive to equal or excel; to emulate.
* Dryden
To use in place of something else, with the same function.
In the phrase "substitute X for Y", to use X in place of Y. With increasing frequency used in the semantically opposite sense (see
In the phrase "substitute X with/by Y", to use Y in place of X; to replace X with Y
(sports) To remove (a player) from the field of play and bring on another in his place.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=April 11
, author=Phil McNulty
, title=Liverpool 3 - 0 Man City
, work=BBC Sport
To serve as a replacement (for someone or something)
* 1987 , , Essays in Economics, Vol. 2 , p. 75
A replacement or stand-in for something that achieves a similar result or purpose.
* De Quincey
(sports) A player who is available to replace another if the need arises, and who may or may not actually do so.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=November 3
, author=David Ornstein
, title=Macc Tel-Aviv 1 - 2 Stoke
, work=BBC Sport
(historical) One who enlists for military service in the place of a conscript.
In transitive terms the difference between rival and substitute
is that rival is to oppose or compete with while substitute is in the phrase "substitute X with/by Y", to use Y in place of X; to replace X with Y.As an adjective rival
is having the same pretensions or claims; standing in competition for superiority.rival
English
Noun
(en noun)The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
- If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, / The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
Derived terms
* rivalry * archrivalAdjective
(-)- rival lovers; rival claims or pretensions
- The strenuous conflicts and alternate victories of two rival confederacies of statesmen.
Verb
- to rival somebody in love
citation, passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, […].}}
- to rival thunder in its rapid course
Anagrams
* ----substitute
English
Verb
(substitut)- I had no shallots so I substituted onion.
the OED's notes).
- I had to substitute new parts for the old ones.
- I had to substitute old parts with the new ones. (This usage was formerly proscribed.)
- He was playing poorly and was substituted after twenty minutes
citation, page= , passage=Mario Balotelli replaced Tevez but his contribution was so negligible that he suffered the indignity of being substituted himself as time ran out, a development that encapsulated a wretched 90 minutes for City and boss Roberto Mancini. }}
- Accumulation of wealth by this route may substitute for personal saving.
Usage notes
The verb "to substitute" can be used transitively in two opposite ways. "To substitute X" may mean either "use X in place of something else" (as in definitions 1 and 2), or "use something else in place of X" (as in definitions 3 and 4). The latter use is more recent, but it is widespread and now generally accepted (seethe COED's note on the matter). However, if the indirect object (the "something else") is omitted, the preposition is also omitted, and the reader or hearer cannot tell which sense is meant: * "Substitute butter for olive oil" = Use butter instead of olive oil * "Substitute olive oil for butter" = Use olive oil instead of butter * "Substitute butter" = ??? * "Substitute olive oil" = ???
Noun
(en noun)- Ladies [in Shakespeare's age] wore masks as the sole substitute known to our ancestors for the modern parasol.
citation, page= , passage=Dean Whitehead opened the scoring shortly after the break with a low finish and substitute Peter Crouch sealed the win with a tap-in.}}
