HOW TO PRONOUNCE
alternative
/ɔlˈtɝ.nə.tɪv/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:31
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awl-TUR-nuh-tiv: stress the r-colored middle vowel.
The last syllable contains the short i of “give.” Keep the vowel after n light, rather than giving every written a a full a sound.
TRY SAYING
“We found an alternative route through the park.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗What does alternative mean?
adjective
- Relating to a choice between two or more possibilities.
- Presenting two or more alternatives.
- Other; different from something else.
More meanings (7)
adjective
- Not traditional, outside the mainstream, underground.
- (obsolete) Alternate, reciprocal.
noun
- A situation which allows a mutually exclusive choice between two or more possibilities; a choice between two or more possibilities.
- One of several mutually exclusive things which can be chosen.
- The remaining option; something available after other possibilities have been exhausted.
- alternative rock
- A non-offensive word or phrase that serves as a replacement for a word deemed offensive or unacceptable, though not as a euphemism.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ɔlˈtɝ.nə.tɪv/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
He had been known to observe casually that in dealing with womankind the only alternative to flattery was cursing and swearing.
As to the arrest of John Mitton, the valet, it was a council of despair as an alternative to absolute inaction.
More book examples (3)
I felt this was no mere formula of desperate speech, but a real alternative in the view of a strong soul.
Under that impulse she had made her choice, and had chosen, as it now appeared, the more wretched alternative of the two.
And yet this is the plain alternative involved by those who wish to deny it the power of extending its operations to individuals.