as in faux
being such in appearance only and made with or manufactured from usually cheaper materials
like everything else the restaurant served, the whipped cream on the dessert was ersatz
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of ersatz
At Disney, the ersatz world is the commodity that people are buying.
—
Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 23 Feb. 2026
This inexpensive ersatz version of pizza, which many in postwar Japan couldn’t afford, became a widespread snack sensation.
—Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 2026
In a world of deepfakes, ersatz eye contact is small beer.
—Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2026
Through its doors, an ersatz ballroom, shrouded in a fog-machine haze, houses Regency-era ephemera and a dance instructor.
—Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ersatz
Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 23 Feb. 2026
This inexpensive ersatz version of pizza, which many in postwar Japan couldn’t afford, became a widespread snack sensation.
—Los Angeles Times, 8 Feb. 2026
In a world of deepfakes, ersatz eye contact is small beer.
—Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2026
Through its doors, an ersatz ballroom, shrouded in a fog-machine haze, houses Regency-era ephemera and a dance instructor.
—Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 19 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for ersatz
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ersatz
Adjective
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Garcia, who wrote and directed the movie, has come up with some crisply clever faux-noir dialogue, and part of the joke is that Joe speaks in his hardboiled pensées while everyone else talks like a normal person.—
Owen Gleiberman,
Variety,
21 May 2026
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Unlike many faux-jean pants that always look a little off, these still have that classic denim look.—
Caroline Hughes,
Travel + Leisure,
20 May 2026
Adjective
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Earlier this year, Target was one of the first national retailers to raise the wellness bar by banning all cereals made with synthetic dyes and colors from its shelves.—
Pamela N. Danziger,
Forbes.com,
18 May 2026
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Target will also carry a Froot Loops Wild Berry cereal made without certified synthetic colors.—
Michele Laufik,
Martha Stewart,
18 May 2026
Adjective
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Off Campus uses the messy lives of these athletes to explore romance tropes like fake-dating plots, enemies-to-lovers twists, secret relationships, and more.—
CT Jones,
Rolling Stone,
22 May 2026
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The Sentinel story published earlier this month featured both Gavi’s and Bastien’s cases as examples of Florida’s inconsistent approach to dealing with nurses who received degrees from roughly two dozen schools that sold fake nursing degrees to more than 7,000 people over the past several years.—
Annie Martin,
The Orlando Sentinel,
22 May 2026
Adjective
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The jeers were not heard at home thanks to the sound-selecting tech that replaces the boos with artificial cheers.—
Steven Zeitchik,
HollywoodReporter,
16 May 2026
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Rescuing utopian idyll from dystopian reality, Koreeda determines that humanity is too fragile to forfeit its defining qualities to a mechanical species; that our only viable function in an artificial tomorrow is as the eternal caretakers of memory and imagination.—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
16 May 2026
Adjective
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While in space, Ship is expected to deploy 22 dummy Starlink satellites — a large increase from the eight or 10 simulated payloads on previous flights.—
Tariq Malik,
Space.com,
18 May 2026
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Who or what is this simulated girlfriend experience that has seemingly overridden Nikki, and where is the genuine article?—
Guy Lodge,
Variety,
14 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Ersatz.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ersatz. Accessed 23 May. 2026.
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