alternate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to do something in turns

   I alternate between biking and swimming.

2. 2
   verb

   to go back and forth

   I alternated between watching tv and playing video games.

3. 3
   verb

   to be an understudy or alternate for a role

   I alternate for some famous actors I'm not allowed to name.

4. 4
   adj

   Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly).

   And bid alternate passions fall and rise

5. 5
   adj

   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 alternate members 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.

6. 6
   adj

   Other; alternative.

   Hyperlinked text is displayed in alternate color in a Web browser.

7. 7
   adj

   Distributed singly at different heights of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular divergence

   Many trees have alternate leaf arrangement (e.g. birch, oak and mulberry).

8. 8
   noun

   That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.

   Grateful alternates of substantial peace.

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alternātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin alternō (“to take turns”) (see -ate (1,2 and 3)), from alternus (“one after another, by turns”), from alter (“other”) + -nus. Doublet of altern; see also alter.