standing in

verb

present participle of stand in
as in substituting
to serve as a replacement usually for a time only she will be standing in for the regular teacher for a week

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of standing in The Boys had the Vought corporation standing in for the show’s own platform, Amazon, and Superman has an Elon Musk figure in Lex Luthor. — Bethy Squires, Vulture, 22 July 2026 Moments later the Tesla Model 3 raced down a residential street in Katy, Texas, at highway speeds, slammed into a brick home and killed a 76-year-old woman standing in the front room. — Bernard Condon, Fortune, 16 July 2026 But the Ukrainians are still confidently inside the town center, with the General Staff posting a video of one officer casually standing in Victory Square in November. — Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 16 July 2026 People started singing, chanting, and cheering together on the street while standing in the rain. — Sophie Lindberg, Kansas City Star, 14 July 2026 Teenagers are finding the game on TikTok, ordering a footbag online, then going outside and standing in a circle with their friends. — Eddie Brown, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 July 2026 The video showed Robinson standing in a room at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap. — ABC News, 8 July 2026 The abrupt dismantling of USAID has already harmed both vulnerable communities and America’s standing in Africa. — W. Gyude Moore, semafor.com, 2 July 2026 Cost per wear does the same job for clothing, with one wear standing in for the ounce. — Ryan Brennan, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 26 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for standing in
  1. substituting
  2. filling in
  3. stepping in
  4. taking over
Verb
  • For centuries, technology has lowered costs by substituting mechanical power for human labor.
    — Robert Pearl, Forbes.com, 20 July 2026
  • In the early days of the republic, there were many radicals and reformers who shared my suspicion that patriotism was an evasion, substituting songs and speeches about liberty for the reality.
    — Dominic Erdozain, Time, 3 July 2026
Definition of substituting
Verb
  • Guthrie sat next to Sheinelle Jones, who was filling in for Melvin on Monday.
    — Lara Walsh, InStyle, 20 July 2026
  • For this week’s Infinite Scroll column, Brady Brickner-Wood is filling in for Kyle Chayka.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 15 July 2026
Definition of filling in
Verb
  • As Bay Area art schools flounder under financial strain, Silicon Valley is increasingly stepping in as an influential force in the region’s cultural landscape.
    — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 22 July 2026
  • Jobs are shifting from operating software to managing a hybrid workforce of humans and agents—setting goals, validating outputs, and stepping in when judgment is required.
    — Girija Krishnamurthy, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
Definition of stepping in
Verb
  • The retailer has expanded the space by 140 percent, taking over an area formerly dedicated to tableware, crockery and small home furnishings.
    — Samantha Conti, Footwear News, 23 July 2026
  • The San Francisco campus is taking over the site of the California College of the Arts, the 119-year-old institution that will graduate its final class in 2027 after struggling with falling enrollment and a roughly $20 million deficit.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 23 July 2026
Definition of taking over

Browse Nearby Words

standing for
standing in
standing off
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Standing in.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/standing%20in. Accessed 27 Jul. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of parochial

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

Every Letter Is Silent, Sometimes: A-Z List of Examples
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List

Ten Words Ending with a Silent ‘T’

The Words of the Week - Jul 24

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
chain-question-mark
Missing Link Quiz July 2026 Five seconds to figure out the word that fits bot...
See All