| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| alternate |
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| SYLLABICATION: | al·ter·nate |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  ôl t r-n t ,  l- |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: al·ter·nat·ed, al·ter·nat·ing, al·ter·nates
| | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1a. To occur in a successive manner: day alternating with night. b. To act or proceed by turns: The students alternated at the computer. 2. To pass back and forth from one state, action, or place to another: alternated between happiness and depression. 3. Electricity To reverse direction at regular intervals in a circuit. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To do or execute by turns. 2. To cause to alternate: alternated light and dark squares to form a pattern. | | ADJECTIVE: | (-n t)1. Happening or following in turns; succeeding each other continuously: alternate seasons of the year. See Usage Note at alternative. 2. Designating or relating to every other one of a series: alternate lines. 3. Serving or used in place of another; substitute: an alternate plan. 4. Botany a. Arranged singly at each node, as leaves or buds on different sides of a stem. b. Arranged regularly between other parts, as stamens between petals. | | NOUN: | (-nt)1. A person acting in the place of another; a substitute. 2. An alternative. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Latin alternre, alternt-, from alternus, by turns, from alter, other. See al-1 in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | alter·nate·ly —ADVERB
alter·nate·ness —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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