Definitions
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noun 
  1. That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.
Grateful alternates of substantial. -Prior
  1. (Misuse) A substitute; an alternative; one designated to take the place of another, if necessary, in performing some duty.
  2. (math) A proportion derived from another proportion by interchanging the means.
  3. A replacement of equal or greater value or function.
  4. (heraldry) figure, Figures or tinctures that succeed each other by turns.
Translations: 
    verb (alternat, ing)
    1. (transitive) To perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly.
    2. (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.
    3. (intransitive) To vary by turns; as, the land alternates between rocky hills and sandy plains.
    Translations: 
    • German: alternieren
    • French: alterner(fr)
    adjective 
    1. 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
    1. (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.
    1. other, Other; or as common misuse when meaning alternative.
    2. (botany) Distributed, as leaves, singly at different heights of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular divergence. --Gray.
    Translations: 
      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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