act as a substitute for vs replace

act as a substitute for

replace

verb
  • To place again. 

  • To put in a new or different place. 

  • To take over the position or role from. 

  • To take the place of; to be used instead of 

  • To restore to a former place, position, condition, etc.; to put back 

  • To refund; to repay; to pay back 

  • To supply or substitute an equivalent for 

  • To demolish (a building) and build an updated form of that building in its place. 

How often have the words act as a substitute for and replace occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )