alternatively

American  

[awl-tur-nuh-tiv-lee, al-] / ɔlˈtɜr nə tɪv li, æl- /

adverb

1. 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.

2. 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.

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Other Word Forms

• quasi-alternatively adverb

Etymology

Origin of alternatively

alternative + -ly

Example Sentences

One almost gets a sense that the great doers of history were like robots, temporarily inhabited by an otherworldly spiritual force or, alternatively, were stick figures that Hegel moved about on his grandiose world-historical tableau.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026

Depending on the president’s decisions, a restructuring could wipe out existing shareholders or alternatively see them realize a return of hundreds of billions of dollars on their investments.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

Anthropic’s counter was that all of its practices—from the training itself to the utilization of books its engineers had alternatively pirated and purchased for Claude training—constituted an instance of fair use and were perfectly legal.

From Slate • Jun. 30, 2025

Justin Szlasa said signs would have been better than fences, or, alternatively, improving the trails in question to make them safer.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 7, 2024

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

Related Words

• sooner
• willingly