[Learn English] 250+ One Word Substitutions

One word Substitution is one of the integral parts of vocabulary. It simply means that a sentence has to be replaced with a single word. This area requires a good vocabulary to solve the questions well.

Questions based on one word substitution are often asked in various competitive exams.

In this article, we are sharing a list of most important and frequently asked one word substitutions for various competitive examinations like SSC, Bank, Etc.

For “Individual Character/ Person/ People”
For “Collection/ Group”
For “Research/ Profession”
For “Spot/ Venue”
For “Government/ Systems”
For “Murder/ Death”
For “Sound”
For Competitive Exam Related to “Generic Terms”

S.No.	PHRASE ONE WORD	ONE WORD
One Word Substitution List For “Individual Character/ Person/ People”
1	One who is not sure about God’s existence Agnostic	Agnostic
2	A person who deliberately sets fire to a building	Arsonist
3	One who does a thing for pleasure and not as a profession	Amateur
4	One who can use either hand with ease	Ambidextrous
5	One who makes an official examination of accounts	Auditor
6	A person who believes in or tries to bring about a state of lawlessness	Anarchist
7	A person who has changed his faith	Apostate
8	One who does not believe in the existence of God	Atheist
9	A person appointed by two parties to solve a dispute	Arbitrator
10	One who leads an austere life	Ascetic
11	One who does a thing for pleasure and not as a profession	Amateur
12	One who can either hand with ease	Ambidextrous
13	An unconventional style of living	Bohemian
14	One who is bad in spellings	Cacographer
15	One who feeds on human flesh	Cannibal
16	A person who is blindly devoted to an idea/ A person displaying aggressive or exaggerated patriotism	Chauvinist
17	A critical judge of any art and craft	Connoisseur
18	Persons living at the same time	Contemporaries
19	One who is recovering health after illness	Convalescent
20	A girl/woman who flirts with man	Coquette
21	A person who regards the whole world as his country	Cosmopolitan
22	One who is a centre of attraction	Cynosure
23	One who sneers at the beliefs of others	Cynic
24	A leader or orator who espoused the cause of the common people	Demagogue
25	A person having a sophisticated charm	Debonair
26	A leader who sways his followers by his oratory	Demagogue
27	A dabbler (not serious) in art, science and literature	Dilettante
28	One who is for pleasure of eating and drinking	Epicure
29	One who often talks of his achievements	Egotist
30	Someone who leaves one country to settle in another	Emigrant
31	A man who is womanish in his habits	Effeminate
32	One hard to please (very selective in his habits)	Fastidious
33	One who runs away from justice	Fugitive
34	One who is filled with excessive enthusiasm in religious matters	Fanatic
35	One who believes in fate	Fatalist
36	A lover of good food	Gourmand
37	Conferred as an honour	Honorary
38	A person who acts against religion	Heretic
39	A person of intellectual or erudite tastes	Highbrow
40	A patient with imaginary symptoms and ailments	Hypochondriac
41	A person who is controlled by wife	Henpeck
42	One who shows sustained enthusiastic action with unflagging vitality	Indefatigable
43	Someone who attacks cherished ideas or traditional institutions	Iconoclast
44	One who does not express himself freely	Introvert
45	Who behaves without moral principles	Immoral
46	A person who is incapable of being tampered with	Impregnable
47	One who is unable to pay his debts	Insolvent
48	A person who is mentally ill	Lunatic
49	A person who dislikes humankind and avoids human society	Misanthrope
50	A person who primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics	Mercenary
51	Someone in love with himself	Narcissist
52	One who collect coins as hobby	Numismatist
53	A person who likes or admires women	Philogynist
54	A lover of mankind	Philanthropist
55	A person who speaks more than one language	Polyglot
56	One who lives in solitude	Recluse
57	Someone who walks in sleep	Somnambulist
58	A person who is indifferent to the pains and pleasures of life	Stoic
59	A scolding nagging bad-tempered woman	Termagant
60	A person who shows a great or excessive fondness for one’s wife	Uxorious
61	One who possesses outstanding technical ability in a particular art or field	Virtuoso
One Word Substitution List For “Collection/ Group”
62	A group of guns or missile launchers operated together at one place	Battery
63	A large bundle bound for storage or transport	Bale
64	A large gathering of people of a particular type	Bevy
65	An arrangement of flowers that is usually given as a present	Bouquet
66	A family of young animals	Brood
67	A group of things that have been hidden in a secret place	Cache
68	A group of people, typically with vehicles or animals travelling together	Caravan
69	A closed political meeting	Caucus
70	An exclusive circle of people with a common purpose	Clique
71	A group of followers hired to applaud at a performance	Claque
72	A series of stars	Constellation
73	A funeral procession	Cortege
74	A group of worshippers	Congregation
75	A herd or flock of animals being driven in a body	Drove
76	A small fleet of ships or boats	Flotilla
77	A small growth of trees without underbrush	Grove
78	A community of people smaller than a village	Hamlet
79	A group of cattle or sheep or other domestic mammals	Herd
80	A large group of people	Horde
81	A temporary police force	Posse
82	A large number of fish swimming together	Shoal
83	A strong and fast-moving stream of water or other liquid	Torrent
One Word Substitution List For “Research/ Profession”
84	The medieval forerunner of chemistry	Alchemy
85	A person who presents a radio/television programme	Ancho
86	One who studies the evolution of mankind	Anthropologist
87	A person who is trained to travel in a spacecraft	Astronaut
88	The scientific study of the physiology, structure, genetics, ecology, distribution, classification, and economic importance of plants	Botany
89	A person who draws or produces maps	Cartographer
90	A person who writes beautiful writing	Calligrapher
91	A person who composes the sequence of steps and moves for a performance of dance	Choreographer
92	A person employed to drive a private or hired car	Chauffeur
93	A person who introduces the performers or contestants in a variety show	Compere
94	A keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection	Curator
95	The branch of biology concerned with cyclical physiological phenomena	Chronobiology
96	A secret or disguised way of writing	Cypher
97	The study of statistics	Demography
98	The use of the fingers and hands to communicate and convey ideas	Dactylology
99	A person who sells and arranges cut flowers	Florist
100	A line of descent traced continuously from an ancestor	Genealogy
101	The therapeutic use of sunlight	Heliotherapy
102	The art or practice of garden cultivation and management	Horticulture
103	One who supervises in the examination hall	Invigilator
104	The theory or philosophy of law	Jurisprudence
105	A person who compiles dictionarie	Lexicographer
106	The scientific study of the structure and diseases of teeth	Odontology
107	One who presents a radio programme	Radio Jockey
108	The art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing	Rhetoric
109	The branch of science concerned with the origin, structure, and composition of rocks	Petrology
110	One who study the elections and trends in voting	Psephologist
111	An artist who makes sculptures.	Sculptor
112	The scientific study of the behaviour, structure, physiology, classification, and distribution of animals	Zoology
One Word Substitution List For “Spot/ Venue”
113	A collection of historical documents or records providing information about a place, institution, or group of people	Archive
114	A large cage, building, or enclosure for keeping birds in	Aviary
115	A building where animals are butchered	Abattoir
116	A place where bees are kept; a collection of beehives	Apiary
117	A building containing tanks of live fish of different species	Aquarium
118	A place or scene of activity, debate, or conflict	Arena
119	A collection of weapons and military equipment	Arsenal
120	An institution for the care of people who are mentally ill	Asylum
121	A hole or tunnel dug by a small animal, especially a rabbit, as a dwelling	Burrow
122	A collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place	Cache
123	A public room or building where gambling games are played	Casino
124	A large burial ground, especially one not in a churchyard	Cemetery
125	A room in a public building where outdoor clothes or luggage may be left	Cloakroom
126	A place where a dead person’s body is cremated	Crematorium
127	a Christian community of nuns living together under monastic vows	Convent
128	Nursery where babies and young children are cared for during the working day	Creche
129	A stoppered glass container into which wine or spirit is decanted	Decanter
130	A large bedroom for a number of people in a school or institution	Dormitory
131	The nest of a squirrel, typically in the form of a mass of twigs in a tree	Drey
132	A room or building equipped for gymnastics, games, and other physical exercise	Gymnasium
133	A storehouse for threshed grain	Granary
134	A large building with an extensive floor area, typically for housing aircraft.	Hangar
135	A box or cage, typically with a wire mesh front, for keeping rabbits or other small domesticated animals	Hutch
136	A place in a large institution for the care of those who are ill	Infirmary
137	A small shelter for a dog	Kennel
138	A place where wild animal live	Lair
139	A place where coins, medals, or tokens are made	Mint
140	A collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibition	Menagerie
141	A building or buildings occupied by a community of monks living under religious vows	Monastery
142	A place where bodies are kept for identification	Morgue
143	A piece of enclosed land planted with fruit trees	Orchard
144	A large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply	Reservoir
145	A small kitchen or room at the back of a house used for washing dishes and another dirty household work	Scullery
146	A close-fitting cover for the blade of a knife or sword	Sheath
147	A room or building for sick children in a boarding school	Sanatorium
148	A place where animal hides are tanned	Tannery
149	A large, tall cupboard in which clothes may be hung or stored	Wardrobe
One Word Substitution List For “Government/ Systems”
150	A state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority or other controlling systems	Anarchy
151	A form of government in which power is held by the nobility	Aristocracy
152	A system of government by one person with absolute power	Autocracy
153	A self-governing country or region	Autonomy
154	A system of government in which most of the important decisions are taken by state officials rather than by elected representatives	Bureaucracy
155	A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives	Democracy
156	A state, society, or group governed by old people	Gerontocracy
157	A state or country run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens	Kakistocracy
158	Government by new or inexperienced hands	Neocracy
159	Government by the populace	Ochlocracy
160	A small group of people having control of a country or organization	Oligarchy
161	Government by the wealthy	Plutocracy
162	Government not connected with religious or spiritual matters	Secular
163	A form of government with a monarch at the head	Monarchy
164	A political system based on government of men by God	Thearchy
One Word Substitution List For “Fear/ Phobia”
165	An extreme or irrational fear of heights	Acrophobia
166	An irrational fear of fresh air or drafts of air	Aerophobia
167	Fear of being egotistical, being alone or isolated	Autophobia
168	A phobia of pain	Algophobia
169	An abnormal fear of heights	Altophobia
170	An emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat	Anorexia
171	An extreme or irrational fear of open or public places	Agoraphobia
172	An abnormal and persistent fear of depths	Bathophobia
173	Fear or hatred of books	Bibliophobia
174	Fear of ugliness and things that are ugly	Cacophobia
175	A dislike of being in the centre	Centrophobia
176	An extreme fear about beauty	Cellophobia
177	Fear of time	Chronophobia
178	Fear of dogs	Cynophobia
179	An extreme or irrational fear of confined places	Claustrophobia
180	A delusion of being possessed by evil spirits	Demonomania
181	An abnormal and persistent fear of drinking alcohol	Dipsophobia
182	An abnormal and persistent fear of work or finding employment	Ergophobia
183	Fear of getting married, being in a relationship, or commitment	Gamophobia
184	Physical or psychological fear of sexual relations or sexual intercourse	Genophobia
185	Fear of old age	Geraphobia
186	Fear of knowledge	Gnosiophobia
187	Fear of women	Gynaephobia
188	Fear of writing or handwriting	Graphophobia
189	An irrational and intense fear of travel	Hodophobia
190	An excessive fear or aversion to obtaining pleasure	Hedonophobia
191	Fear of disease	Haemetophobia
192	An obsessive fear of words	Logophobia
193	An extreme fear of wind or drafts	Menemophobia
194	An extreme or irrational fear of the night or of darkness	Nyctophobia
195	Fear of medication	Pharamacophobia
196	Fear of death	Thanatophobia
197	Extreme superstition regarding the number thirteen	Triskaidekaphobia
One Word Substitution List For “Murder/ Death”
198	A solemn procession, especially for a funeral	Cortege
199	A poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead	Elegy
200	A phrase or form of words written in memory of a person who has died	Epitaph
201	Killing of one’s son or daughter	Filicide
202	Destruction or abortion of a fetus	Foeticide
203	Killing of one’s brother or sister	Fratricide
204	Killing of a large group of people	Genocide
205	Killing of one person by another	Homicide
206	Killing of infants	Infanticide
207	Burial of a corpse in a grave or tomb	Interment
208	Killing of one’s mother	Matricide
209	A room or building in which dead bodies are kept	Mortuary
210	A news article that reports the recent death of a person	Obituary
211	Killing of a parent or other near relative	Parricide
212	Killing of one’s father	Patricide
213	An examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death	Postmortem
214	Action of killing a king	Regicide
215	Killing of one’s sister	Sororicide
216	Act of intentionally causing one’s own death	Suicide
217	Killing of one’s wife	Uxoricide
One Word Substitution List For “Sound”
218	The branch of physics concerned with the properties of sound	Acoustics
219	The sound of Alligators	Bellow
220	The sound of Deers	Bell
221	The sound of Crows	Caw
222	The sound of Geese	Cackle
223	The sound of Hens	Cluck
224	The sound of Dolphins	Click
225	The sound of Frogs	Croak
226	The sound of Crickets	Creak
227	The sound of Monkeys	Gibber
228	The sound of Camels	Grunt
229	The sound of Owls	Hoot
230	The sound of Penguins	Honk
231	The sound of Cattle	Moo
232	The sound of Horses	Neigh
233	The sound of Nightingales	Pipe
234	The sound of Ducks	Quack
235	The sound of Parrots	Screech
236	The sound of Rats	Squeak
237	The sound of Birds	Twitter
238	The sound of Elephants	Trumpet
239	The sound of Mosquitoes	Whine
One Word Substitution List For Competitive Exam Related to “Generic Terms”
240	An act of abdicating or renouncing the throne	Abdication
241	An annual calendar containing important dates and statistical information such as astronomical data and tide tables	Almanac
242	A cold-blooded vertebrate animal that is born in water and breathes with gills	Amphibian
243	A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one	Allegory
244	A statement or proposition on which an abstractly defined structure is based	Axiom
245	A nation or person engaged in war or conflict, as recognized by international law	Belligerent
246	An examination of tissue removed from a living body to discover the presence, cause, or extent of a disease	Biopsy
247	The action or offence of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk	Blasphemy
248	The arrangement of events or dates in the order of their occurrence	Chronology
249	A vigorous campaign for political, social, or religious change	Crusade
250	Lasting for a very short time	Ephemeral
251	Spoken or done without preparation	Extempore
252	Release someone from a duty or obligation	Exonerate
253	Fond of company	Gregarious
254	Making marks that cannot be removed	Indelible
255	Incapable of making mistakes or being wrong	Infallible
256	Certain to happen	Inevitable
257	A sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past	Nostalgia
258	A solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases	Panacea
259	A doctrine which identifies God with the universe	Pantheism
260	Excessively concerned with minor details or rules	Pedantic
261	The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own	Plagiarism
262	Safe to drink	Potable
263	The emblems or insignia of royalty	Regalia
264	Violation or misuse of what is regarded as sacred	Sacrilege
265	A position requiring little or no work but giving the holder status or financial benefit	Sinecure
266	A thing that is kept as a reminder of a person, place, or event	Souvenir
267	An imaginary ideal society free of poverty and suffering	Utopia
268	Denoting a sin that is not regarded as depriving the soul of divine grace	Venial
269	In exactly the same words as were used originally	Verbatim