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Alternative:


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Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
alternative/ɔːlˈtɜːnətɪv/
adjective
  • 1 (of one or more things) available as another possibility.

    ■ (of two things) mutually exclusive.

  • 2 relating to activities that depart from or challenge traditional norms.
noun one of two or more available possibilities.
– derivatives
alternatively adverb.
– origin C16: from Fr. alternatif, -ive or med. L. alternativus, from L. alternat-, alternare ‘do by turns’, from alternus ‘every other’, from alter ‘other of two’.
usage: Some traditionalists maintain that, because of the word's origin, you can only have a maximum of two alternatives, and that uses where there are more than two are wrong. Such uses are, however, normal in modern standard English.



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