changeling

Meanings

1. 1nouncountableliterary

   In old stories, a fairy child secretly left in place of a human baby that was taken away.

   Grammar: Countable: you can say a changeling or the changeling, and use the plural changelings.

   Patterns

   • a changeling child
   • the changeling in the story

   In the old tale, the parents slowly realized that the baby in the cradle was a changeling.

   Villagers once believed that fairies swapped healthy infants for a sickly changeling.

   The novel's heroine discovers she is a changeling raised by human parents.

2. 2nouncountablefigurativeliterary

   A person or thing that has been quietly replaced by another, often without anyone noticing.

   Grammar: Used figuratively in writing; it still takes an or the and has a plural.

   Patterns

   • a changeling in the system
   • turn out to be a changeling

   The report described the new policy as a changeling: the old rules in a friendlier costume.

   By the time the votes were counted, the original plan had become a changeling no one recognized.

Word forms

Common combinations

a fairy changeling

The story warns that a fairy changeling will cry all night.

leave a changeling

In the legend, the fairies leave a changeling and steal the real child.

suspected changeling

The strange, silent boy was treated as a suspected changeling.

Synonyms and how they differ

substitute

A general word for something used in place of another; it has none of the magical or folkloric meaning of changeling.

impostor

This means a person pretending to be someone else, so it fits when the replacement is human and deliberate, not magical.

Word family

change verb

to make or become different

change noun

the act or result of becoming different

changeful adjective

likely to change often; literary and rare

Commonly confused: changeling or changing?

Practice

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