ALTERNATIVE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Alternative

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/ɔltˈərnətɪv/ Listen

adjective

Alternative adj.

1.

Offering a choice of two things.

2.

Disjunctive; as, an alternative conjunction.

3.

Alternate; reciprocal. (Obs.)

noun

Alternative n.

1.

An offer of two things, one of which may be chosen, but not both; a choice between two things, so that if one is taken, the other must be left. "There is something else than the mere alternative of absolute destruction or unreformed existence."

2.

Either of two things or propositions offered to one's choice. Thus when two things offer a choice of one only, the two things are called alternatives. "Having to choose between two alternatives, safety and war, you obstinately prefer the worse."

3.

The course of action or the thing offered in place of another. "If this demand is refused the alternative is war." "With no alternative but death."

4.

A choice between more than two things; one of several things offered to choose among. "My decided preference is for the fourth and last of these alternatives."

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Etymology of 'Alternative'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Alternative" Quotes from Famous Books

... now—and have a very frank talk with him. He should tell him that he had decided to say nothing about the old life and to help him in every way, to be his friend—provided that he keep straight, that is all. Of course more than that would be meant, the alternative would be there and understood, but he need not say it. I think that course of action would be fair to himself and to everybody. That is my answer. What ...

— The Portygee • Joseph Crosby Lincoln

... centuries, one must feel first and last, around and above and beneath it, the good faith of the public, excepting only Jews and atheists, permeating every portion of it with the conviction of an immediate alternative between heaven and hell, with Mary as the ONLY court in equity capable of ...

— Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres • Henry Adams

... that it was a pleasure merely to mention the name of his prospective father-in-law to his envious acquaintances. Archibald Berstoun, Esq., of that ilk, was the style in which that gentleman preferred to have correspondence addressed to him, accepting Berstoun of Berstoun as a less satisfactory alternative, and answering very briefly letters ...

— The Prodigal Father • J. Storer Clouston

... the year 1852, the necessity of a free and open Bible in our common schools was emphasized as the only possible way, in which our nation can continue to be self-governed. The Bible, for the masses, is God's great instrument for governing men and nations. "There is but one alternative," said Mr. Sawtell, "God will have men and nations governed; and they must be governed by one of the two instruments, an open Bible with its hallowed influences, or a standing army with bristling bayonets. One is the product ...

— The Choctaw Freedmen - and The Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy • Robert Elliott Flickinger

... circumstances, is to talk to the winds. Clownish ignorance may indeed be dispelled, and taught better; but it is seldom that a criminal is not aware of the consequences of his act, or has not made up his mind to the alternative. They are, in general, too knowing by half. You tell a person of this stamp what is his interest; he says he does not care about his interest, or the world and he differ on that particular. But there is one point on which he must agree with them, namely, what they think of ...

— The Spirit of the Age - Contemporary Portraits • William Hazlitt

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