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"substitute" is also used as a crossword clue. If that's what you saw, the answer is often surrogate (9 letters).
Definitions
artificial and inferior
Word origin
From Middle English substituten, from Latin substitutus, past participle of substituō, from sub- (“under; beneath”) + statuō (“to put up; establish”).
Used in a sentence
“I had no shallots so I substituted onion.”
“I had to substitute new parts for the old ones.”
“I had to substitute old parts with the new ones.”
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Used as a crossword answer1 curated clues
01“Replacement player”10 letters
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