One Word Substitution – A list of 190+ One-Word Substitutions (English, Study Material, Exam Preparation, Question, Answer and Explanation)

One Word Substitution

One Word Substitution is the use of one word in place of a wordy phrase in order to make the sentence's structure more precise and clear. The meaning, with the replacement of the phrase remains identical while the sentence becomes shorter. 

In other words, it means to find a single word that describes the given definition or property. In one-word substitution questions, a definition will be given and you will be asked to choose a word for this definition from the options that are provided.

Example: My friend drives me in a car around town.
Using one-word substitution in this sentence, it could be re-written as:
My friend chauffeurs me around town.

List of One Word Substitution

To avoid confusion, we have categorized the list of 190+ one-word substitution into 6 categories, i.e., Generic Terms, Government or Systems, Group or Collection, Person or People, Profession or Research and Venue or Spot in alphabetic order.

List of One Word Substitutions (Generic Terms)
One Word Substitution	Generic Terms
A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one	Allegory
An annual calendar containing important dates and statistical information such as astronomical data and tide tables	Almanac
A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that is born in water and breathes with gills	Amphibian
A statement or proposition on which an abstractly defined structure is based	Axiom
A nation or person engaged in war or conflict, as recognized by international law	Belligerent
An examination of tissue removed from a living body to discover the presence, cause or extent of a disease	Biopsy
The action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk	Blasphemy
The arrangement of events or dates in the order of their occurrence	Chronology
A vigorous campaign for political, social, or religious change	Crusade
Lasting for a very short time	Ephemeral
Release someone from a duty or obligation	Exonerate
Spoken or done without preparation	Extempore
Fond of company	Gregarious
Making marks that cannot be removed	Indelible
Certain to happen	Inevitable
Incapable of making mistakes or being wrong	Infallible
A sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past	Nostalgia
A solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases	Panacea
A doctrine which identifies God with the universe	Pantheism
Excessively concerned with minor details or rules	Pedantic
The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own	Plagiarism
Safe to drink	Potable
The emblems or insignia of royalty	Regalia
Violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred	Sacrilege
A position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit	Sinecure
A thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event	Souvenir
An imaginary ideal society free of poverty and suffering	Utopia
Denoting a sin that is not regarded as depriving the soul of divine grace	Venial
In exactly the same words as were used originally	Verbatim

List of One Word Substitutions (Government or System)
One Word Substitution	Government / System
A state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems	Anarchy
A form of government in which power is held by the nobility	Aristocracy
A system of government by one person with absolute power	Autocracy
A self-governing country or region	Autonomy
A system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives	Bureaucracy
A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives	Democracy
A state, society, or group governed by old people	Gerontocracy
A state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens	Kakistocracy
A form of government with a monarch at the head	Monarchy
Government by new or inexperienced hands	Neocracy
Government by the populace	Ochlocracy
A small group of people having control of a country or organization	Oligarchy
Government by the wealthy	Plutocracy
Government not connected with religious or spiritual matters	Secular
A political system based on the government of men by God	Thearchy

List of One Word Substitutions (Group or Collection)
One Word Substitution	Group / Collection
A large bundle bound for storage or transport	Bale
A group of guns or missile launchers operated together at one place	Battery
A large gathering of people of a particular type	Bevy
An arrangement of flowers that is usually given as a present	Bouquet
A family of young animals	Brood
A group of things that have been hidden in a secret place	Cache
A group of people, typically with vehicles or animals travelling together	Caravan
A closed political meeting	Caucus
A group of followers hired to applaud at a performance	Claque
An exclusive circle of people with a common purpose	Clique
A group of worshippers	Congregation
A series of stars	Constellation
A funeral procession	Cortege
A herd or flock of animals being driven in a body	Drove
A small fleet of ships or boats	Flotilla
A small growth of trees without underbrush	Grove
A community of people smaller than a village	Hamlet
A group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals	Herd
A large group of people	Horde
A temporary police force	Posse
A large number of fish swimming together	Shoal
A strong and fast-moving stream of water or other liquid	Torrent

List of One Word Substitutions (Person or People)
One Word Substitution	Person / People
One who is not sure about God’s existence	Agnostic
One who does a thing for pleasure and not as a profession	Amateur
One who can use either hand with ease	Ambidextrous
A person who believes in or tries to bring about a state of lawlessness	Anarchist
A person who has changed his faith	Apostate
A person appointed by two parties to solve a dispute	Arbitrator
A person who deliberately sets fire to a building	Arsonist
One who leads an austere life	Ascetic
One who does not believe in the existence of God	Atheist
One who makes an official examination of accounts	Auditor
An unconventional style of living	Bohemian
One who is bad in spellings	Cacographer
One who feeds on human flesh	Cannibal
A person who is blindly devoted to an idea/ a person displaying aggressive or exaggerated patriotism	Chauvinist
A critical judge of any art and craft	Connoisseur
Persons living at the same time	Contemporaries
One who is recovering health after illness	Convalescent
A girl/woman who flirts with a man	Coquette
A person who regards the whole world as his country	Cosmopolitan
One who sneers at the beliefs of others	Cynic
One who is a centre of attraction	Cynosure
A person having a sophisticated charm	Debonair
A leader or orator who espouses the cause of the common people	Demagogue
A leader who sways his followers by his oratory	Demagogue
A dabbler (not serious) in art, science and literature	Dilettante
A man who is womanish in his habits	Effeminate
One who often talks of his achievements	Egotist
Someone who leaves one country to settle in another	Emigrant
One who is for pleasure of eating and drinking	Epicure
One who is filled with excessive enthusiasm in religious matters	Fanatic
One who is hard to please (very selective in his habits)	Fastidious
One who believes in fate	Fatalist
One who runs away from justice	Fugitive
A lover of good food	Gourmand
A person who is controlled by wife	Henpeck
A person who acts against religion	Heretic
A person of intellectual or erudite tastes	Highbrow
Conferred as an honour	Honorary
A patient with imaginary symptoms and ailments	Hypochondriac
Someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions	Iconoclast
Who behaves without moral principles	Immoral
A person who is incapable of being tampered with	Impregnable
One who shows sustained enthusiastic action with unflagging vitality	Indefatigable
One who is unable to pay his debts	Insolvent
One who does not express himself freely	Introvert
A person who is mentally ill	Lunatic
A person who is primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics	Mercenary
A person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society	Misanthrope
Someone in love with himself	Narcissist
One who collect coins as hobby	Numismatist
A lover of mankind	Philanthropist
A person who likes or admires women	Philogynist
A person who speaks more than one language	Polyglot
One who lives in solitude	Recluse
Someone who walks in sleep	Somnambulist
A person who is indifferent to the pains and pleasures of life	Stoic
A scolding nagging bad-tempered woman	Termagant
A person who shows a great or excessive fondness for one’s wife	Uxorious
One who possesses outstanding technical ability in a particular art or field	Virtuoso

List of One Word Substitutions (Profession / Research)
One Word Substitution	Profession / Research
The medieval forerunner of chemistry	Alchemy
A person who presents a radio/television programme	Anchor
One who studies the evolution of mankind	Anthropologist
A person who is trained to travel in a spacecraft	Astronaut
The scientific study of the physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification and economic importance of plants	Botany
A person who writes beautiful writing	Calligrapher
A person who draws or produces maps	Cartographer
A person employed to drive a private or hired car	Chauffeur
A person who composes the sequence of steps and moves for a performance of dance	Choreographer
The branch of biology concerned with cyclical physiological phenomena	Chronobiology
A person who introduces the performers or contestants in a variety show	Compere
A keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection	Curator
A secret or disguised way of writing	Cypher
The use of the fingers and hands to communicate and convey ideas	Dactylology
The study of statistics	Demography
A person who sells and arranges cut flowers	Florist
A line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor	Genealogy
The therapeutic use of sunlight	Heliotherapy
The art or practise of garden cultivation and management	Horticulture
One who supervises in the examination hall	Invigilator
The theory or philosophy of law	Jurisprudence
A person who compiles dictionaries	Lexicographer
The scientific study of the structure and diseases of teeth	Odontology
The branch of science concerned with the origin, structure and composition of rocks	Petrology
One who studies the elections and trends in voting	Psephologist
One who presents a radio programme	Radio Jockey
The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing	Rhetoric
An artist who makes sculptures.	Sculptor
The scientific study of the behaviour, structure, physiology, classification and distribution of animals	Zoology

List of One Word Substitutions (Venue or Spot)
One Word Substitution	Venue / Spot
A building where animals are butchered	Abattoir
A place where bees are kept; a collection of beehives	Apiary
A building containing tanks of live fish of different species	Aquarium
A collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people	Archives
A place or scene of activity, debate, or conflict	Arena
A collection of weapons and military equipment	Arsenal
An institution for the care of people who are mentally ill	Asylum
A large cage, building, or enclosure to keep birds	Aviary
A hole or tunnel dug by a small animal, especially a rabbit, as a dwelling	Burrow
A collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place	Cache
A public room or building where gambling games are played	Casino
A large burial ground, especially one not in a churchyard	Cemetery
A room in a public building where outdoor clothes or luggage may be left	Cloakroom
A Christian community of nuns living together under monastic vows	Convent
Nursery where babies and young children are cared for during the working day	Creche
A place where a dead person’s body is cremated	Crematorium
A stoppered glass container into which wine or spirit is decanted	Decanter
A large bedroom for a number of people in a school or institution	Dormitory
The nest of a squirrel, typically in the form of a mass of twigs in a tree	Drey
A storehouse for threshed grain	Granary
A room or building equipped for gymnastics, games and other physical exercise	Gymnasium
A large building with an extensive floor area, typically for housing aircraft	Hangar
A box or cage, typically with a wire mesh front, for keeping rabbits or other small domesticated animals	Hutch
A place in a large institution for the care of those who are ill	Infirmary
A small shelter for a dog	Kennel
A place where wild animal live	Lair
A collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition	Menagerie
A place where coins, medals, or tokens are made	Mint
A building or buildings occupied by a community of monks living under religious vows	Monastery
A place where bodies are kept for identification	Morgue
A piece of enclosed land planted with fruit trees	Orchard
A large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply	Reservoir
A room or building for sick children in a boarding school	Sanatorium
A small kitchen or room at the back of a house used for washing dishes and another dirty household work	Scullery
A close-fitting cover for the blade of a knife or sword	Sheath
A place where animal hides are tanned	Tannery
A large, tall cupboard in which clothes may be hung or stored	Wardrobe

Practice Questions : For One Word Substitution

Directions: In questions given below, out of the four options, pick the one which can be substituted for the given words/ sentence.

Question 1: “To look at someone in an angry or threatening way.”
A) Fatal
B) Prevaricate
C) Epitaph
D) Glower

Answer: Option D - Glower
Explanation: Let us see the meaning of the words one by one.
- Fatal: Something that causes death.
- Prevaricate: This means to Quibble (to avoid giving a direct answer to a question in order to hide the truth).
- Epitaph: An inscription on a tomb.
- Glower: To look at someone in an angry or threatening way.

Question 2: “To feel or express disapproval of something or someone.”
A) Deprecate
B) Commemorate
C) Amphibians
D) Bilingual

Answer: Option A - Deprecate
Explanation: Let us see the meaning of the words one by one.
- Deprecate: To feel or express disapproval of something or someone.
- Commemorate: To keep a great person or event in people’s memory.
- Amphibians: Animal that can live on land and in water.
- Bilingual: A person who is fluent in two languages.

Question 3: “A man who wastes his money on luxury.”
A) Notorious
B) Versatile
C) Ornithologist
D) Extravagant.

Answer: Option D - Extravagant
Explanation: Let us see the meaning of the words one by one.
- Notorious: A person who is well known in an unfavourable way.
- Versatile: Someone having many skills.
- Ornithologist: Someone who scientifically studies the birds.
- Extravagant: A man who wastes his money on luxury.

Question 4: “A political leader appealing to popular desires and prejudices.”
A) Dictator
B) Truant
C) Triumvirate
D) Demagogue

Answer: Option D - Demagogue
Explanation: Let us see the meaning of the words one by one.
- Dictator: A ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained control by force.
- Truant: A schoolboy who frequently cuts classes.
- Triumvirate: A group of three powerful people.
- Demagogue: A political leader appealing to popular desires and prejudices.