The kinetics of nucleophilic substitution reactions involving 2,4‐dinitrophenyl 5‐substituted‐2‐thiophenecarboxylate were studied kinetically with 4‐Z‐C6H4O−/4‐Z‐C6H4OH, which facilitated the reactions, in 20 mol% DMSO(aq). The reactions followed second‐order kinetics and exhibited βacyl = −2.34 to −2.92, ρ(Y) = 2.71–3.39, βnuc = 0.74–0.83, and |βlg| = 0.40–0.57. Based on the interpretation of the results, we have concluded that the reaction follows an addition–elimination mechanism in which the first step is the rate‐determining step (rds). The transition state structures for the 4‐ZC6H4O−‐promoted reactions remained nearly the same with a change in the leaving group from 4‐nitrophenoxide to 2,4‐dinitrophenoxide. The mechanism of the 4‐ZC6H4O−‐promoted reaction was similar to that of R2NH‐promoted reactions, except that the former proceeded with the 1st step being the rds and the latter proceeded with a change in the rds from the second to the first step with a stronger nucleophile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]