Other forms: alternatives
An alternative is another possibility instead of this one. A different road to the same place.
Strictly it once meant one of exactly two choices, and purists still object to three alternatives, though almost nobody now minds. It takes to. As an adjective it means outside the mainstream, which is where alternative medicine, alternative comedy and alternative music all come from, and each of those carries a whole set of assumptions. There is no alternative is one of the most quoted political phrases of the last century.
1nounalternativeAnother possibility that could be chosen instead.
“There was no realistic alternative to closing the site.”
2adjectiveoutsideOutside the established or mainstream way of doing things.
“He went in for alternative medicine.”
Middle French
alternatif
English, today
alternative
Borrowed from Middle French alternatif. From Middle French alternatif, from Medieval Latin alternātīvus (“alternating”), from the participle stem of Latin alternō (“interchange, alternate”). by surface analysis, alternate + -ive. Compare alternate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA