Replacement

How to spell replacement

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce replacement

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does replacement mean?

1. nounA person or thing that takes the place of another, or the act of substituting one thing for another.

Replacement in a sentence

• The plumber ordered a replacement for the cracked pipe.

• The manager spent two months finding a replacement for the retiring accountant.

Where does replacement come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word is built on the verb 'replace', which itself joins the prefix 're-', meaning 'back' or 'again', to 'place'. 'Place' came into English through Old French from the Latin platea, meaning a broad street or open space, which in turn was borrowed from the Greek plateia, a feminine form of platys meaning 'broad' or 'flat'. By the 1500s English had 'place' as both noun and verb, and 'replace' emerged in the 1500s to 1600s with the sense of putting something back in its position or putting one thing in the position of another. The noun 'replacement' was then formed by adding the suffix '-ment', which turns a verb into a noun naming the action or its result; this pattern arrived with French and became hugely productive in English. The same platys root, meaning broad, also lies behind 'plate', 'platform', and 'plateau', which is a helpful reminder that the middle of replacement holds the everyday word 'place'.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• place (from Latin platea: open space, broad street)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting result or action)