Word.ws English Dictionary

alternates

alternates is the plural of alternate.

alternates is the third-person singular simple present indicative of alternate.

Meaning of alternate

Noun

alternate (plural alternates)

  1. That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.
    • Grateful alternates of substantial peace.1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
  2. (US) A substitute; an alternative; one designated to take the place of another, if necessary, in performing some duty.
    • An alternate for the first-string quarterback played the entire first half.
  3. A proportion derived from another proportion by interchanging the means.
  4. (US) A replacement of equal or greater value or function.

See all 13 meanings of alternate

Questions about alternates

What is alternates the plural of?
Alternates is the plural of alternate.

Words near alternates in the dictionary

  1. alternated
  2. alternateen
  3. alternateens
  4. alternately
  5. alternateness
  6. alternates
  7. alternating
  8. alternating caps
  9. alternating case
  10. alternating current
  11. alternating currents

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: alternates (page history and authors); alternate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “alternates.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/alternates. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.