alternative
Meanings
- Relating to a choice between two or more possibilities.
- Presenting two or more alternatives.
- Other; different from something else.
- Not traditional, outside the mainstream, underground.
- Alternate, reciprocal.
- A situation which allows a mutually exclusive choice between two or more possibilities; a choice between two or more possibilities.
- One of several mutually exclusive things which can be chosen.
- The remaining option; something available after other possibilities have been exhausted.
- alternative rock
- A non-offensive word or phrase that serves as a replacement for a word deemed offensive or unacceptable, though not as a euphemism.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos Proto-Italic *aljos Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Italic *-teros Proto-Italic *aliteros Latin alter Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Latin -nus Latin alternus Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin alternō Latin alternātus Proto-Indo-European *-wós Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder. Latin -īvus Latin alternātīvusder. Middle French alternatifbor. English alternative From Middle French alternatif, from Medieval Latin alternātīvus (“alternating”), from the participle stem of Latin alternō (“interchange, alternate”). By surface analysis, alternate + -ive. Compare alternate.