alternatively
Americanadverb
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as another choice or option.
At the end of the unit, each group of students writes a book review or, alternatively, acts out a short scene from the book.
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in a nonstandard, novel, or unconventional manner or style.
We found significant differences between the traditionally and alternatively certified teachers with regard to classroom experience.
You are not automatically more creative just because you're in an alternatively decorated meeting room.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of alternatively
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bangs were for the meek, the insecure, those with something to hide — or alternatively those going through some kind of life crisis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Creators can alternatively accumulate 8,000 hours of watch time over a year, up from 4,000 today.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
“The settlor can alternatively amend the trust via any method that shows his or her intent to do so by clear and convincing evidence,” McLane Middleton says.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
But EA barristers said it had a general power to bring private prosecutions, and alternatively that allegations of conspiracy to defraud were connected to its functions.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
Children’s knowledge of how to use a tool could be a result of their experience with the tool; alternatively, it could be a result of their perceiving the tool’s affordances from shape and manipulability cues.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
