Alternated

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To have occurred in a sequence where items or actions switch places or roles repeatedly, creating a pattern of variation over time
2. To have been engaged in a process where different elements are utilized alternatively in succession or rotation
3. Happened by switching back and forth between two or more states or actions in turn

Etymology: "Alternated" is the past tense of "alternate," a verb whose core idea is that one thing gives way to another, back and forth. The Latin root is "alter," meaning "other," and from it came "alternus," meaning "one after another, by turns." The Roman verb "alternare" meant "to take turns," and English borrowed its past participle "alternatus" as "alternate," so the word is built around the notion of the other one taking its turn. The word shares its origins with "altern," which entered English as a doublet, a second form of the same Latin source that arrived by a different path. The familiar "alter," meaning to change, comes from the same Latin "alter," so "alternate" is a close relative of the everyday word for making something different.

Synonyms: switched, interchanged, rotated, replaced, recurred