ersatz

adjective

er·​satz ˈer-ˌsäts 

-ˌzäts;

er-ˈzäts,

-ˈsäts;

ˈər-ˌsats 

: 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.

Synonyms

• artificial
• bogus
• dummy
• factitious
• fake
• false
• faux
• imitation
• imitative
• man-made
• mimic
• mock
• pretend
• sham
• simulated
• substitute
• synthetic

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

The thinness also means that fingers are cramped too closely together, hovering over each Joy-Con's shoulder buttons and triggers as ersatz left and right mouse buttons but lacking enough clearance to use either properly. —Matt Kamen, Wired News, 20 Apr. 2025

Local and federal preservation standards also generally discourage replicas of historic buildings as ersatz preservation. —Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 23 Mar. 2025

Local and federal preservation standards also generally discourage replicas of historic buildings as ersatz preservation. —Andres Viglucci, Miami Herald, 23 Mar. 2025

Image generators churn out ersatz versions of da Vinci and van Gogh. —Namwali Serpell, The New Yorker, 8 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

German ersatz-, from Ersatz, noun, substitute

First Known Use

1871, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for ersatz

• allots
• boycotts
• croats
• despots
• dreadnoughts
• feedlots
• gunshots
• hotspots
• onslaughts
• robots
• snapshots
• sunspots

Podcast

Get Word of the Day delivered to your inbox!