Hypertext Webster Gateway: "alternative"

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) 1.7 (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?"; "there no
other alternative"; "my only choice is to refuse" [syn: {option},
{choice}]


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