alternately
Britishadverb
Explanation
When something happens by turns, first one way and then another, it occurs alternately. You might spend a long train trip alternately gazing out the window and scrolling on your phone. There are two ways to use this adverb: first, to mean "in an alternating pattern," or going back and forth from one thing to another. Spend a race alternately running and stopping to tie your shoes and you're probably not going to win. It also means "here's another possibility," so you might say: "I'm ordering the fish. Alternately, I'll get the fries and a salad." Alternately has a Latin root that means "to do one thing, then the other."
Vocabulary lists containing alternately
Shake It Up: Alter
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Boy 2.0
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When Sea Becomes Sky
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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.
The author and the composer-pianist would go on to spend nine years together, alternately traveling around Europe and rejuvenating themselves at Sand’s beloved Nohant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
Except for Iran, of course, which he alternately bombs, demonizes and flatters.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
Willis was alternately a policeman and a naval officer.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2026
Over the course of the evening, things will be alternately tense, flirty, vulnerable and revelatory as surprisingly little food is eaten.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
And then Mom gasped and began laughing and crying all at once, and alternately holding her hands over her mouth and holding on to Emma and Finn.
From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
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.
