as in rather
as a substitute
I was offered a ride, but I chose to walk instead
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Recent Examples of instead
Use this guide to discover what summer habits secretly spike utility bills and what to do instead.
—
Timothy Dale, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 July 2025
Manufacturers tend not to announce their cancellations but instead hope that people forget about their original proposals.
—Aarian Marshall, Wired News, 19 July 2025
Marten did not answer the question, asking instead why she was being arrested.
—Catherine Nicholls, CNN Money, 19 July 2025
These behaviors are not explicitly programmed but instead emerge as a result of the model’s interaction with the reinforcement learning environment.
—ArsTechnica, 7 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for instead
Timothy Dale, Better Homes & Gardens, 19 July 2025
Manufacturers tend not to announce their cancellations but instead hope that people forget about their original proposals.
—Aarian Marshall, Wired News, 19 July 2025
Marten did not answer the question, asking instead why she was being arrested.
—Catherine Nicholls, CNN Money, 19 July 2025
These behaviors are not explicitly programmed but instead emerge as a result of the model’s interaction with the reinforcement learning environment.
—ArsTechnica, 7 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for instead
Recent Examples of Synonyms for instead
rather
Adverb
-
Some can serve as bulking agents, absorbing and retaining water all that stuff moving through your gastrointestinal tract so that in the end, or rather out the end your poo can move more readily.—
Bruce Y. Lee,
Forbes.com,
24 July 2025
-
Neither of the ladies’ approaches is at all effective and, instead, rather harmful.—
Dominique Fluker,
Essence,
24 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Instead.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/instead. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.
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