Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

instead of

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.24 in modern English

Syllables: in-stead- of
IPA

13

Scrabble Score

9

Letters

3

Syllables

9

Unique Chars

Meaning

prep

In lieu of; in place of; rather than.

Example Sentences

"He walked to school instead of taking the car."
"I wish I were rich instead of poor."
"The baby put the food on his face instead of in his mouth."
"And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God."
"Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better."

Etymology

From Middle English in stede of, in stude of (“instead of”, literally “in stead of, in place of”), equivalent to in + stead + of (cf. in one's stead). Cognate with Saterland Frisian insteede, ansteede (“instead of”), West Frisian ynstee (“instead of”), Dutch instede (“instead of”), German anstatt (von) (“instead of”), Danish i stedet (“instead of”).

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: in stede of

Inflected Forms

in stead of (alternative, archaic) in the stead of (alternative, formal) insteada (alternative, pronunciation spelling) steada (alternative, pronunciation spelling)

Questions

What does instead of mean?: In lieu of; in place of; rather than.
Where does instead of come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce instead of

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