instead of

See also: in stead of

English

Alternative forms

• in stead of (archaic)
• in the stead of (chiefly formal or literary)
• insteada, steada (eye dialect)

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”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Preposition

instead of

1. In lieu of; in place of; rather than.

   Synonym: in preference to

   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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 4:16:

     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.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter V, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     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.

Usage notes

• Instead of is followed by a noun, pronoun or gerund; it may also be followed elliptically by a preposition, adverb, adjective or phrase.

Translations

in lieu of; in place of; rather than

• Afrikaans: in plaas van
• Albanian: në vend të, në vend që
• Arabic: بَدَلًا مِن (badalan min)

  Egyptian Arabic: بدل ما (badal ma)

  Gulf Arabic: مكان (mukan), بدال (badāl)

  Moroccan Arabic: فعوض ما (f-ʕūṭ ma)

• Armenian: փոխարեն (hy) (pʻoxaren)
• Assamese: -অৰ সলনি (-or xoloni)
• Azerbaijani: əvəzinə, yerinə
• Bashkir: урынына (orınına)
• Belarusian: заме́ст (zamjést)
• Bengali: পরিবর্তে (bn) (poriborte)
• Bulgarian: вме́сто (bg) (vmésto)
• Catalan: en comptes de
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 而係 / 而系 (ji⁴ hai⁶)， 反而 (faan² ji⁴)

  Mandarin: 而是 (zh) (érshì)， 反而 (zh) (fǎn'ér)

• Czech: namísto (cs), místo (cs)
• Danish: i stedet for
• Dutch: in plaats van (nl)
• Esperanto: anstataŭ (eo)
• Estonian: selle asemel et, selmet
• Finnish: sen sijaan että, sen sijaan, asemesta (fi)
• French: à la place de (fr), au lieu de (fr)
• Galician: en vez de, en lugar de, en troques de
• Georgian: ნაცვლად (nacvlad), მაგივრად (magivrad)
• German: an Stelle von, anstelle von, statt (de), anstatt (de), anstelle (de)
• Greek: αντί (el) (antí)

  Ancient Greek: ἀντί (antí) (+ genitive)

• Hebrew: בִּמְקוֹם (bimkom)
• Hindi: के बजाय (ke bajāy)
• Hungarian: helyett (hu), (if a gerund is expressed with a verb form) ahelyett, hogy
• Hunsrik: enstatt, statts
• Icelandic: í staðin fyrir
• Ido: vice (io)
• Indonesian: alih-alih (id), bukannya (id)
• Ingrian: mesto, sihas
• Irish: in ionad, in áit
• Italian: invece di, invece che, anziché (it)
• Japanese: …の代わりに (…のかわりに, ... no kawari ni)
• Korean: ~ 대신에 (ko) (~ daesin-e)
• Latin: pro (la) (+ ablative), (genitive +) vice (la)
• Macedonian: наместо (namesto), место (mesto)
• Malay: daripada
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: istedenfor (no), i staden for, i stedet for (no)

• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: بِه جایِ (be jâ-ye)

• Polish: zamiast (pl), w miejsce, na miejsce
• Portuguese: ao invés de (pt), em vez de (pt)
• Russian: вме́сто (ru) (vmésto), взаме́н (ru) (vzamén)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: у̀мјесто, (Ijekavian), у̀место (Ekavian)

  Latin: ùmjesto (Ijekavian), ùmesto (Ekavian)

• Slovak: namiesto
• Slovene: namesto
• Spanish: en lugar de (es), en vez de
• Swedish: i stället för
• Telugu: బదులు (te) (badulu)
• Thai: แทน (th) (tɛɛn)
• Turkish: yerine (tr)
• Ukrainian: за́мість (zámistʹ), замі́сто (zamísto)
• Urdu: کے بَجائے (ke bajāe)
• Vietnamese: thay vì (vi)
• Walloon: estô di (wa), el plaece di (wa)
• Welsh: yn lle

Anagrams

• DiStefano, Distefano