| Definitions | | alternate |
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noun
- That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.
- Grateful alternates of substantial. -Prior
- (Misuse) A substitute; an alternative; one designated to take the place of another, if necessary, in performing some duty.
- (math) A proportion derived from another proportion by interchanging the means.
- A replacement of equal or greater value or function.
- (heraldry) figure, Figures or tinctures that succeed each other by turns.
verb (alternat, ing)
- (transitive) To perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly.
- (intransitive) To happen, succeed, or act by turns; to follow reciprocally in place or time;—followed by with; as, the flood and ebb tides alternate with each other.
- (intransitive) To vary by turns; as, the land alternates between rocky hills and sandy plains.
adjective
- Being or succeeding by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; by turns first one and then the other; hence, reciprocal.
- And bid passions fall and rise. -Pope
- (math) Designating the members in a series, which regularly intervene between the members of another series, as the odd or even numbers of the numerals; every other; every second.
- the members 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.
- other, Other; or as common misuse when meaning alternative.
- (botany) Distributed, as leaves, singly at different heights of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular divergence. --Gray.
Etymology: From (term, alternare, , take turns), (term, alternus, , one after another, by turns), from (term, alter, , other). See (term, altern), (term, alter).
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Full Definition of alternate
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