How to spell instead

hear itin·stead/ɪn'stɛd/adverbLong vowels

What it means: In place of something else.

In a sentence: I wanted to play outside, but instead, I read a book.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as insted or in stead.

Same family: rather, alternative, alternatively, otherwise. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Instead” comes from a phrase in Middle English, “in stede (of),” which literally meant “in place (of).” Over time, the two words fused into the single adverb we use today.

Try spelling it

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Words like this

sound · pound · ground · round · bound

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