3 definitions found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Alternative \Al*ter"na*tive\, a. [Cf. F. alternatif.]
1. Offering a choice of two things
2. Disjunctive; as an alternative conjunction.
3. Alternate; reciprocal. [Obs.] --Holland.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Alternative \Al*ter"na*tive\, n. [Cf. F. alternative, LL
alternativa.]
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.
--Burke.
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. --Jowett
(Thucyd.).
3. The course of action or the thing offered in place of
another.
If this demand is refused the alternative is war.
--Lewis.
With no alternative but death. --Longfellow.
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. --Gladstone.
From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]:
alternative
adj 1: allowing a choice; "an alternative plan" [syn: {alternate}]
2: necessitating a choice between mutually exclusive
possibilities; "`either' and `or' in `either this or that'
[syn: {mutually exclusive}]
3: pertaining to unconventional choices; "an alternative life
style"
n : an alternative action "what option did I have?" or "there
no other alternative" or "my only choice is to refuse"
[syn: {option}, {choice}]
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