What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Surrogate vs Ersatz - What's the difference?

surrogate | ersatz | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between surrogate and ersatz

is that surrogate is a substitute (usually of a person, position or role) while ersatz is something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.

As adjectives the difference between surrogate and ersatz

is that surrogate is of, concerning, relating to or acting as a substitute while ersatz is made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality.

As a verb surrogate

is to replace or substitute something with something else; appoint a successor.

surrogate

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A substitute (usually of a person, position or role).
  • A person or animal that acts as a substitute for the social or pastoral role of another, such as a surrogate mother.
  • (chiefly, British) A deputy for a bishop in granting licences for marriage.
  • : A judicial officer of limited jurisdiction, who administers matters of probate and intestate succession and, in some cases, adoptions.
  • A surrogate'' or ''surrogate key is a unique identifier for either an entity in the modeled world or an object in the database.
  • (computing) Any of a range of Unicode codepoints which are used in pairs in to represent characters beyond the Basic Multilingual Plane.
  • Synonyms

    * See also

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of, concerning, relating to or acting as a substitute.
  • Verb

    (surrogat)
  • To replace or substitute something with something else; appoint a successor.
  • Synonyms

    * deputize, foster, replace, subrogate, substitute

    See also

    * surrogatum ----

    ersatz

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality.
  • Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.

    Synonyms

    * artificial, faux, imitation, knock off

    Quotations

    * 1923 , Arthur Michael Samuel, The Mancroft Essays'', ''Pinchbeck'', page 164 (possibly published before in ''The Saturday Review in 1917–1921): *: In these days of “rolled” gold, electro-plate, and undetectable pearls, it is curious that almost the only honest Ersatz material known to the goldsmith's art should be utterly forgotten. * 1929 , "Zeppelining," Time , 16 Sep., *: Ersatzgas'', ''Ersatzpfennige . Ersatz has become a brave word in Germany. As a substantive it means War Reparations. As part of compounded words it means substitute. * 2001 , The New Yorker , 15 Oct, *: The avant-garde's opposite number, in Greenberg's scheme, is kitsch, "ersatz culture"—art for capitalism's new man (who turns out to be no different from Fascism's or Communism's new man). * 2003 , The New Yorker , 17 & 24 Feb, *: The NATO visitors watched an ersatz eighteenth-century dance (complete with powdered wigs and simulated copulation) that might have been considered obscene had it not been so amusing. * 2004 , The New Yorker , 31 May, *: The crowd wandered out to a huge party on the ersatz city blocks of the Paramount lot.

    Noun

    (ersatzes)
  • Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.
  • (en)

    Synonyms

    * imitation, knock off