How to Use ersatz in a Sentence

ersatz

adjective
  • In a world of deepfakes, ersatz eye contact is small beer.
    — Emily Nussbaum, New Yorker, 30 Jan. 2026
  • Frank knew the real from the ersatz, and there wasn't any fooling him.
    — Town & Country, 13 June 2015
  • Among the traces of the maritime city here today, the ersatz takes many forms.
    — Justin Davidson, Curbed, 21 May 2025
  • There’s not a trace of the ersatz substance in this brilliant play, which is worth its weight in the real thing.
    — Rhoda Feng, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024
  • The value factor is an ersatz measure of gaps between price and value.
    — Daniel Tenreiro, National Review, 18 Nov. 2020
  • Already, Portrait Milan is used as a short cut and even an ersatz park.
    — Jackie Cooperman, Robb Report, 6 Apr. 2023
  • The hikers walked up and down a small set of stairs, over and over again, documenting the ersatz trek on Zoom.
    — Melissa Locker, Time, 22 Apr. 2020
  • And while the ersatz field and narrow dimensions drew complaints, the reviews from those who took part were mostly good.
    — Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 25 June 2024
  • His love for off colors, iffy prints, and ersatz details recalls the provincial market stall.
    — Lauren Collins, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2023
  • The metal is very flat in color, making the statue seem ersatz, plasticky.
    — Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 15 Sep. 2017
  • So there are cars in the parking lots and the occasional pedestrian to be seen walking the ersatz city streets.
    — Richard A. Marini, ExpressNews.com, 1 Apr. 2020
  • Then the structure was dismantled and rebuilt as an ersatz version of itself, at a quarter the size.
    — Raffi Khatchadourian, The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2021
  • The city is celebrated as gaudy, flashy, ersatz, fake, a monument to excess.
    — Michael Goldstein, Forbes, 23 Apr. 2022
  • Akin to antlers on end tables, the aesthetics of national parks are being used in an ersatz way, tailored to the rich.
    — Antonia Hitchens, Town & Country, 8 June 2022
  • But Batiste’s sense of himself is trapped in ethnic expression that’s become ersatz.
    — Armond White, National Review, 6 Apr. 2022
  • There’s no sense of depth or history to this couple, no reason to care for either their mission or their ersatz romance.
    — Jillian Selzer, Cosmopolitan, 24 July 2017
  • Why do grown men in powder blue, ersatz military uniforms parade down Broadway in the hot sun?
    — Richard A. Marini, San Antonio Express-News, 10 Mar. 2023
  • For Wiener and those like her, socializing started to take on this ersatz quality as well.
    — Richard Cooke, The New Republic, 4 Jan. 2021
  • One serendipitous result of the construction delays was the ersatz beach.
    — Jeff Giles, New York Times, 17 June 2019
  • The big tip-off is when the ersatz sleepers solicit gifts from viewers and, after the money is sent, nothing happens on-screen.
    — Salvador Rodriguez, WSJ, 13 Nov. 2022
  • At Disney, the ersatz world is the commodity that people are buying.
    — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 23 Feb. 2026
  • Sweaters and jackets were given wings; denim and sweats sprouted ersatz 24-karat fringe; anoraks trailed lace like a wedding veil, or a royal train.
    — Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Streep, Corden, Kidman and Rannells are game, but there’s an ersatz quality to the film.
    — Charles McNulty Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2020
  • Through its doors, an ersatz ballroom, shrouded in a fog-machine haze, houses Regency-era ephemera and a dance instructor.
    — Madeline Hirsch, InStyle, 19 Jan. 2026
  • The titular lighthouse is ersatz, built for the production on the coast of Nova Scotia.
    — Rumaan Alam, The New Republic, 24 Oct. 2019
  • The old king whose rolling head got everything going wasn’t much of a monarch, just the type of ersatz ruler who crops up between the decline of one great kingdom and the rise of another.
    — Salman Rushdie, The New Yorker, 5 Dec. 2022
  • Her brother, Jay, took an even bigger role, and not just as a member of the ersatz boy band that provided some of the few male lead vocals of the festival.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 23 Jan. 2025
  • James Provost Choosing the proper enclosure for my ersatz test instrument was one of the bigger challenges.
    — David Schneider, IEEE Spectrum, 30 Aug. 2025
  • Park’s response has been to make ersatz monuments like the ones on display at Plain Sight, a pop-up storefront gallery whose small shows are viewable only from the street.
    — Washington Post, 30 Apr. 2021
  • The finished product was a combination of Gyllenhaal’s and Sher’s ideas and the ways the performers would make the ersatz world of the film feel real.
    — Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 13 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ersatz.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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