alternative

From Middle French alternatif, from Medieval Latin alternātīvus (“alternating”), from the participle stem of Latin alternō (“interchange, alternate”). Compare alternate.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɒlˈtɜːnətɪv/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɔlˈtɝnəɾɪv/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˌɑlˈtɝnəɾɪv/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

alternative (not comparable)

1. Relating to a choice between two or more possibilities.

   an alternative proposition

2. Not traditional, outside the mainstream, underground.

   alternative medicine; alternative lifestyle; alternative rock

3. Other; different from something else.
4. Alternate, reciprocal.
   • 1601, Philemon Holland, transl., “Of the seuen Planets”, in The History of the World Commonly Called the Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus, translation of Naturalis Historia by Pliny the Elder, page 3:

     He [the Sun] it is that giveth light to all things, and riddeth them from darkneſſe : hee hideth the other ſtarres, and ſheweth them againe : he ordereth the ſeaſons in their alternative courſe : he tempereth the yeere, ariſing ever freſh and new againe, for the benefite and good of the world.

• alternate
• alternativeness
• alternativism

alternative (plural alternatives)

1. A situation which allows a mutually exclusive choice between two or more possibilities; a choice between two or more possibilities. [from 17th c.]
   • 1817, Walter Scott, Rob Roy, XI:

     ‘The cloister or a betrothed husband?’ I echoed—‘Is that the alternative destined for Miss Vernon?’

2. One of several mutually exclusive things which can be chosen. [from 17th c.]
   • 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison:

     Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. The Constitution is either a superior, paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it.

3. The remaining option; something available after other possibilities have been exhausted. [from 18th c.]

• See also Thesaurus:option

• variant

• alternative in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• alternative in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

alternative

1. alternatively

• IPA^(key): /al.tɛʁ.na.tiv/

• alternative

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alternative

1. feminine singular of alternatif

alternative f (plural alternatives)

1. alternative

• “alternative” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• Audio

  (file)

alternative

1. inflected form of alternativ

• Rhymes: -ive

alternative f

1. plural of alternativa

alternative

1. feminine plural of alternativo

• alternatevi

alternātīve

1. vocative masculine singular of alternātīvus

alternative

1. definite singular of alternativ
2. plural of alternativ

alternative

1. definite singular of alternativ
2. plural of alternativ

alternative

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of alternativ.