# alternate

Pronunciation: US say "AWL-ter-nayt" /ˈɔl.tɚ.neɪt/; UK say "OL-tuh-nayt" /ˈɒl.tə(ɹ)ˌneɪt/

## Verb

1. To happen or act by turns, each following the other in time or place; used with "with".
   - Simple: To happen one after the other, again and again, taking turns with something else.
   - _In his schedule, weeks of intense work alternate with long stretches of rest._
   - _On the old facade, rows of brick alternated with bands of pale stone._
2. To do or arrange things by turns, making them follow one another in a regular, repeated order.
   - Simple: To do or use two things one after the other, again and again.
   - _Alternate the pasta and the sauce in layers until the dish is full._
   - _The physical therapist alternated heat and ice on her injured knee._
7. To change repeatedly from one state or condition to another and back.
   - Simple: To keep changing from one thing to another and back again.
   - _In the desert, temperatures alternate between scorching heat by day and freezing cold at night._
   - _His tone alternated between pride and embarrassment as he told the story._
13. In geometry, to perform an alternation on a polytope or tessellation, removing every other vertex; also, to remove vertices from a face or edge as part of an alternation.
   - Simple: In geometry, to remove every second corner point from a solid shape, a tile pattern, or one of its faces.
   - _Geometers alternate the cube to obtain a regular tetrahedron inscribed in it._
   - _When the hexagonal faces are alternated, each one becomes a triangle._

## Adjective

Pronunciation: US say "AWL-ter-nuht" /ˈɔl.tɚ.nət/; UK say "ol-TUR-nuht" /ɒlˈtɜː(ɹ).nət/

3. Serving as another possible choice; other than the usual or original one. *(US)*
   - Simple: Different from the usual one, and able to be used instead.
   - _Officials posted signs directing drivers to an alternate route around the closed bridge._
   - _Comic book writers love stories set in an alternate universe where the hero turned bad._
4. Being every other or every second member of a series, falling regularly between the members of another series, as the odd or the even numbers do.
   - Simple: Every second one in a series, like the odd numbers or the even numbers.
   - _Shading alternate squares of the grid produces a checkerboard pattern._
   - _In the sequence 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, the alternate terms 2, 8, and 14 form a sequence of their own._
5. Happening or coming by turns, first one and then the other, in repeated succession of time or place.
   - Simple: Coming one after the other, taking turns again and again.
   - _The two nurses cover alternate night shifts, so one of them is always on the ward._
   - _The cathedral's arches are built of alternate bands of red and white stone._
9. Of leaves, growing singly at different heights on the stem, with each one set at the same angle around the stem from the one before.
   - Simple: Used of leaves that grow one by one at different heights along a stem.
   - _Field guides tell maples, with their paired leaves, from oaks, whose leaves are alternate._
   - _The seedling's alternate leaf arrangement became clear once it had put out a few more leaves._
11. In heraldry, said of a pair of tinctures that color a charge in turns, or that are counterchanged against the field.
   - Simple: On a coat of arms, using two colors that take turns, or that swap with the background colors.
   - _The arms show a shield divided red and silver, with an eagle of alternate colors set across the line._
   - _The design calls for a lion in alternate tinctures, gold on the blue half and blue on the gold._

## Noun

Pronunciation: US say "AWL-ter-nuht" /ˈɔl.tɚ.nət/; UK say "ol-TUR-nuht" /ɒlˈtɜː(ɹ).nət/

6. A substitute or alternative, especially one chosen beforehand to take another's place in some duty if the need arises. *(US)*
   - Simple: Someone or something ready to take the place of another if needed.
   - _The convention seated an alternate when one of the state's delegates fell ill._
   - _The judge excused a juror and called in the first of the two alternates._
8. A replacement that is worth as much as the original or more, or that works as well or better. *(US)*
   - Simple: Something just as good or better, used instead of another thing.
   - _If the advertised prize is unavailable, the winner will receive an alternate worth at least as much._
   - _The engineer approved the contractor's alternate, a sturdier valve that cost no more than the one specified._
10. Something that takes turns with something else; a change from one state or fortune to another.
   - Simple: A thing that takes turns with another thing, or a change in how life goes.
12. In mathematics, a proportion obtained from another proportion by interchanging its means.
   - Simple: In math, a new proportion made by swapping the two middle parts of another one.
   - _Taking the alternate of a:b = c:d gives a:c = b:d, which holds whenever the original does._
   - _The next exercise asks students to write the alternate of each proportion and check that it is still true._

## Origin

Borrowed from Latin alternātus, the perfect passive participle of alternō ("to take turns"), from alternus ("one after another, by turns"), from alter ("other") + -nus. It is a doublet of altern; see also alter.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/alternate (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).