as in mixed
to place or do (different things) so that one follows the other in a repeated series
To make the appetizer, you should alternate layers of tomatoes and cheese. The poem alternates fear and hope.
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Recent Examples of alternated
To use basketball and hockey vernacular, Babcock and co-counsel Chris Bankler and Stars lead counsel Joshua Sandler and co-counsel Carroll alternated verbal hard fouls, trash talk and checking into the boards.
—
Brad Townsend, Dallas Morning News, 6 Mar. 2026
The National Independent Party, formed in 2022, is widely viewed as the front-runner, mounting a strong challenge to the long-dominant Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), which have alternated in power for decades.
—ABC News, 4 Mar. 2026
Kalo and Vatu alternated with the leadm but Kalo made it to the puzzle first.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 26 Feb. 2026
Since 2021, the Mets have alternated between losing and winning seasons.
—Will Sammon, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2026
Over a 15-minute Zoom call Monday, Chiefs coach Andy Reid alternated between expressing confidence in his former-but-now-new offensive coordinator and stumping for his most-recently former offensive coordinator to get a head coaching job elsewhere.
—Sam McDowell 27, Kansas City Star, 27 Jan. 2026
Kevin Hassett, Kevin Warsh and Rick Rieder have alternated as favorites.
—Simon Moore, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
She’s alternated between the Barbara boots and the Mary Jane pumps, and has paired them with just about any ensemble, ranging from casual street style to go Christmas shopping or with a Balenciaga dress to go to court.
—Karla Rodriguez, Footwear News, 20 Jan. 2026
The team has alternated between wins and losses for 13 games straight.
—Jason Beede, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 Jan. 2026
Brad Townsend, Dallas Morning News, 6 Mar. 2026
The National Independent Party, formed in 2022, is widely viewed as the front-runner, mounting a strong challenge to the long-dominant Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist), which have alternated in power for decades.
—ABC News, 4 Mar. 2026
Kalo and Vatu alternated with the leadm but Kalo made it to the puzzle first.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 26 Feb. 2026
Since 2021, the Mets have alternated between losing and winning seasons.
—Will Sammon, New York Times, 15 Feb. 2026
Over a 15-minute Zoom call Monday, Chiefs coach Andy Reid alternated between expressing confidence in his former-but-now-new offensive coordinator and stumping for his most-recently former offensive coordinator to get a head coaching job elsewhere.
—Sam McDowell 27, Kansas City Star, 27 Jan. 2026
Kevin Hassett, Kevin Warsh and Rick Rieder have alternated as favorites.
—Simon Moore, Forbes.com, 24 Jan. 2026
She’s alternated between the Barbara boots and the Mary Jane pumps, and has paired them with just about any ensemble, ranging from casual street style to go Christmas shopping or with a Balenciaga dress to go to court.
—Karla Rodriguez, Footwear News, 20 Jan. 2026
The team has alternated between wins and losses for 13 games straight.
—Jason Beede, The Orlando Sentinel, 14 Jan. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for alternated
Verb
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Reverse-creaming is the secret to tender cakes Reverse creaming is a technique in which dry ingredients are mixed with butter prior to adding any wet ingredients.—
Jesse Szewczyk,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
8 Mar. 2026
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The Weitzmans wore the pink Messi jerseys, while Gonzalez and his friends mixed the Argentina and blue-and-red jerseys of FC Barcelona, Messi’s European club.—
Edward Lee,
Baltimore Sun,
8 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The 323 million visits to America’s national parks in 2025 are more than twice the attendance — 135 million — at professional football, baseball, basketball and hockey games combined.—
Jack Dolan,
Los Angeles Times,
14 Mar. 2026
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The teams combined to make 10 of their final 12 shots.—
Blair Kerkhoff,
Kansas City Star,
14 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The setting, characters and costumes place viewers squarely in a whimsical world, though that all gets starkly juxtaposed against real human nature when Cummings offers the players an antidote that will save them should they be revealed as the traitors’ secret sacrifice.—
Tiney Ricciardi,
Denver Post,
3 Mar. 2026
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Derry Girls, which followed teens in McGee’s native Derry in the years preceding 1998’s Good Friday Agreement, was a raucous, joke-dense show that juxtaposed mundane adolescent rites of passage with the daily horrors of life in Northern Ireland during the Troubles.—
Judy Berman,
Time,
27 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Reznor and Atticus Ross, his longtime collaborator, created a show that incorporated not just a wide range of hits and album tracks, but did so with innovative staging and lighting design.—
Peter Larsen,
Oc Register,
12 Mar. 2026
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Another example is the award-winning Larkin Center, which incorporated apartments, duplexes and flats within an existing single-family residential neighborhood.—
Gloria Casas,
Chicago Tribune,
12 Mar. 2026
Verb
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The latest sports/bombing videos were similar to one that featured clips of movies and TV shows interspersed with actual war video.—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
8 Mar. 2026
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Another video, posted by the White House on Wednesday, interspersed footage from war video games with real footage from the strikes in Iran.—
Michelle Stoddart,
ABC News,
6 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Alternated.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/alternated. Accessed 15 Mar. 2026.
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