What does supplant mean?
Word: Supplant
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Supplant means to take the place of something older, or of a person in a position.
How do you spell supplant?
Syllables: sup - plant
Tricky part: Students hear one p and write suplant. The double p is the whole trap in this word, however gently you say it.
Watch out for: suplant, suplaunt
Memory tip: Two people, two p's: one for the person leaving and one for the person taking over.
Supplant in a sentence
Example 1: Streaming has begun to supplant the old cable television channels.
Example 2: Few people expected the young spinner to supplant the team's senior bowler so soon.
Example 3: Solar lamps may soon supplant kerosene lanterns in the remote villages of Ladakh.
Fun Fact
This word goes back to a Latin verb meaning 'to trip up', built on the Latin word for the sole of the foot. Garden plants play no part in its meaning.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Readers have left the printed encyclopaedia for the internet, and tablets may yet supplent the school textbook within a few short years.
a) encyclopaedia
b) textbook
c) internet
d) supplent
Show answer
d) supplent. The last syllable is the ordinary word plant.
Mingle-Mangle
Choose the word that the jumbled letters in the sentence make:
Electric buses may soon tlpnaups diesel ones on the busiest routes in Bengaluru.
a) supplement
b) supplant
c) transplant
d) implant
Show answer
b) supplant. There are eight letters, with a u and an s, and no e or r: that rules out the rest.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word supplant as used in the sentence:
Online lessons will never fully supplant a good teacher in a classroom.
a) support
b) replace
c) imitate
d) praise
Show answer
b) replace. To take over a teacher's position completely is to replace the teacher.
Spell-o-Spell
Read the four words. Choose the meaning of the only correctly spelt word.
1. conscientous 2. supplant 3. surveilance 4. liason
a) to push aside and fill the position of another
b) a link that keeps two groups in touch
c) close watching of a person or a place
d) careful and serious about one's work
Show answer
a) to push aside and fill the position of another. Three words have lost a letter: an i in conscientious, an l in surveillance and an i in liaison.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which change is a clear case of one thing supplanting another?
a) two schools sharing one playing field
b) a family keeping both a car and a scooter
c) email taking over from the handwritten letter
d) a shop adding a second counter for bills
Show answer
c) email taking over from the handwritten letter
2. If a new game supplants the old favourite in the playground, children will ____.
a) stop playing the old one
b) ask for the old one more often
c) play both games equally
d) refuse to play either game
Show answer
a) stop playing the old one
