Altern
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Acting by turns; alternate. not-comparable, obsolete
"And God made two great lights, great for thir use / To Man, the greater to have rule by day, / The less by night, alterne ; and made the stars, / And set them in the firmament of Heaven / To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day / In their vicissitude, and rule the night, / And light from darkness to divide. […]"
Example
More examples"And God made two great lights, great for thir use / To Man, the greater to have rule by day, / The less by night, alterne ; and made the stars, / And set them in the firmament of Heaven / To illuminate the Earth, and rule the day / In their vicissitude, and rule the night, / And light from darkness to divide. […]"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin alternus (“every other, alternate”).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.