ersatz

adjective

er·satz ˈer-ˌsäts

-ˌzäts;

er-ˈzäts,

-ˈsäts;

ˈər-ˌsats

Synonyms of ersatz next

: being a usually artificial and inferior substitute or imitation

ersatz turf

ersatz intellectuals

ersatz noun

Did you know?

Evidence of ersatz in English dates to the middle of the 19th century, but the word didn’t come into prominence until World War I. Borrowed from German, where Ersatz is a noun meaning "substitute," the word was frequently applied as an adjective to modify terms like coffee (made from acorns) and flour (made from potatoes)—ersatz products necessitated by the privations of war. By the time World War II came around, bringing with it a resurgence of ersatz products, ersatz was wholly entrenched in the language. Today, ersatz describes any substitute or imitation, especially when it’s inferior to the original.

Examples of ersatz in a Sentence

an apartment complex designed as an ersatz Mediterranean villa like everything else the restaurant served, the whipped cream on the dessert was ersatz

Recent Examples on the Web

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Her brother, Jay, took an even bigger role, and not just as a member of the ersatz boy band that provided some of the few male lead vocals of the festival. —

Chris Willman, Variety, 23 Jan. 2025 For example, collectors delighted in displaying wondrous fabrications and mythological beings in their curiosity cabinets, from ersatz dragons to many-headed hydra. —

The Editors, JSTOR Daily, 8 Jan. 2025 Many of these ersatz sites look like legitimate sports news offerings. —

Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 15 Jan. 2025 Third place went to Ken Griffin, another Florida ersatz developer (11.1 percent), and Patrice Pastor, who’s been busy buying up chunks of Carmel, California, was fourth (9.9 percent). —

airmail.news, 7 Sep. 2024 See all Example Sentences for ersatz