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 titles are given out alternately, in case two MPs wish to step down at the same time, and each new appointment replaces the previous one.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Except for Iran, of course, which he alternately bombs, demonizes and flatters.
From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2026
Young describes his childhood mostly from the perspective of a boy — alternately bewildered, hurting, depressed and “mad all the time.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
To release the captured CO2, the researchers alternately spray the protein beads with a mild acid and a mild base for roughly 10 minutes at room temperature.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
The others hovered about him, their eyes anxious as he alternately peered at me and consulted my chart.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
