Alternate

English Meaning

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.

1. To occur in a successive manner: day alternating with night.
2. To act or proceed by turns: The students alternated at the computer.
3. To pass back and forth from one state, action, or place to another: alternated between happiness and depression.
4. Electricity To reverse direction at regular intervals in a circuit.
5. To do or execute by turns.
6. To cause to alternate: alternated light and dark squares to form a pattern.
7. Happening or following in turns; succeeding each other continuously: alternate seasons of the year. See Usage Note at alternative.
8. Designating or relating to every other one of a series: alternate lines.
9. Serving or used in place of another; substitute: an alternate plan.
10. Botany Arranged singly at each node, as leaves or buds on different sides of a stem.
11. Botany Arranged regularly between other parts, as stamens between petals.
12. A person acting in the place of another; a substitute.
13. An alternative.