alternate.
Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly).
Meaning & usage
Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly).
Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly). Alternating; (of e.g. a pair of tinctures which a charge is coloured) succeeding in turns, or (relative to the field) counterchanged.
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.
Other; alternative.
Hyperlinked text is displayed in alternate color in a Web browser.
He lives in an alternate universe and an alternate reality.
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).
Where this word comes from
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.
That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.
A substitute; an alternative; one designated to take the place of another, if necessary, in performing some duty.
An alternate for the first-string quarterback played the entire first half.
A proportion derived from another proportion by interchanging the means.
A replacement of equal or greater value or function.
Where this word comes from
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.
To perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly.
To happen, succeed, or act by turns; to follow reciprocally in place or time; followed by with.
The flood and ebb tides alternate with each other.
To vary by turns.
The land alternates between rocky hills and sandy plains.
To perform an alternation (removal of alternate vertices) on (a polytope or tessellation); to remove vertices (from a face or edge) as part of an alternation.
Where this word comes from
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.
Try it on your idea.
alternate has 9 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.