to make different in some particular, as size, style, course, or the like; modify.
to alter a coat; to alter a will; to alter course.
to castrate or spay.
What is another way to say alter?
To alter something is to make it different in some particular way, such as in size, style, or course. How does alter compare to change? Find out on Thesaurus.com.
See adjust,
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Old French alterer, from Late Latin alterāre “to change, worsen,” derivative of Latin alter “other”
After eating too many gingerbread cookies, she no longer fit into her uniform, so she had a seamstress alter it. It looked pretty much the same. The verb alter can also mean to neuter or spay. Think of a cat that has just been spayed: the cat you pick up from the vet is the same cat that you dropped off there, only perhaps a little groggy and unable to reproduce. While the cat has been altered, it's not a different cat.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Is the dog a fellow flâneur in the Weimar city, a mirror of its owner, or perhaps his alter ego?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
By simply changing the number of bubbles in each droplet, the team found they could dramatically alter the pattern left behind as the liquid evaporated.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 11, 2026
You did kind of alter her song forever for a certain generation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
One person has come forward to declare he will challenge Farage: Count Binface, the alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey, who regularly runs in UK elections with his trash-can shaped head and long cape.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
He is willing to alter his art in deference to Theo’s bank balance.
From "Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers" by Deborah Heiligman
Caroline Alter isn’t really a flower person, but ended up paying $55,000 for them anyway.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
When he gets sedentary patients, Alter prescribes exercise like a drug.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
Another new festival coming to Wales is Blackbird - a rock event at Cardiff Castle on 27 June, with acts including Skindred, Alter Bridge and Cardinal Black.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2026
“I didn’t know that it was anything that would bypass any sort of verification,” said Alter, 43 years old, who splits his time between New York state and Canada.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025
Alter a while, as soon as I saw her coming in, I’d start making up a banana split.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
"No-one ever thought it would alter. Their way of life was constant and familiar, as it had been as long as anyone could remember."
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2021
Both 4to 1679 and 1724 read'false souly', which I have ventured to alter. p.
From The Works of Aphra Behn, Volume II by Summers, Montague
The change significantly alters the players’ preparation, starting with meal times, Aguirre told Mexican radio.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 3, 2026
Moreover, the repeal of this rule substantially alters settlement dynamics.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
As climate change alters wind patterns and ocean behavior, the forces acting on these systems may also affect how energy moves through turbulent flows.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026
As climate change alters the food chain in the Arctic, more and more gray whales are moving into San Francisco Bay in search of food, putting them in harm’s way.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
Whether released into soil or water or a man’s blood, these unrelated chemicals do not remain segregated; there are mysterious and unseen changes by which one alters the power of another for harm.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
In the human digestive system, sweeteners may be absorbed, chemically altered, diluted, or broken down before reaching particular microbes.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026
They also altered the structure by damaging or protecting specific sections, allowing them to see how neurons responded when the lattice changed.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 15, 2026
Years later, Messi acknowledged that the incident had altered the perception some Mexican fans had of him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
The Ockenden report also found different care may have altered the outcome for 260 babies who were died or were harmed.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
I slunk toward my bed, paused at my dresser, and stared at the altered photo from the day at the Kennedy Space Center.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
They have known for decades that climate change is altering the frequency and intensity of several types of extreme weather events, including hurricanes, heat waves and extreme rainfall.
From Barron's ● Jul. 16, 2026
The findings, published in Gut Microbes, introduce a new approach to cancer treatment that uses living bacteria to directly target tumors rather than simply altering the gut microbiome.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
Boston: From a Boston laboratory, Alexander Graham Bell’s first successful transmission, in 1876, collapsed the barriers of distance, forever altering human interaction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Whitewashing or altering them because of the sins of their subjects is out of the playbook of despots who erase history or twist it to suit modern-day needs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
‘If you mean, inventing all that about a “present”, well, I thought the true story much more likely, and I couldn’t see the point of altering it at all.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
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.
