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Alternate vs Adjust - What's the difference?

alternate | adjust |

In lang=en terms the difference between alternate and adjust

is that alternate is to vary by turns while adjust is to change to fit circumstances.

As verbs the difference between alternate and adjust

is that alternate is to perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly while adjust is to modify.

As an adjective alternate

is being or succeeding by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; by turns first one and then the other; hence, reciprocal.

As a noun alternate

is that which alternates with something else; vicissitude.

alternate

English

(Webster 1913)

Adjective

(-)
  • Being or succeeding by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; by turns first one and then the other; hence, reciprocal.
  • And bid alternate passions fall and rise . -
  • (mathematics) Designating the members in a series, which regularly intervene between the members of another series, as the odd or even numbers of the numerals; every other; every second.
  • the alternate members 1, 3, 5, 7, etc.
  • (US) Other; alternative.
  • Hyperlinked text is displayed in alternate color in a Web browser.
  • (botany) Distributed, as leaves, singly at different heights of the stem, and at equal intervals as respects angular divergence.
  • (Gray)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • That which alternates with something else; vicissitude.
  • * Matthew Prior
  • Grateful alternates of substantial.
  • (US) A substitute; an alternative; one designated to take the place of another, if necessary, in performing some duty.
  • (mathematics) A proportion derived from another proportion by interchanging the means.
  • (US) A replacement of equal or greater value or function.
  • (heraldry) Figures or tinctures that succeed each other by turns.
  • Verb

    (alternat)
  • To perform by turns, or in succession; to cause to succeed by turns; to interchange regularly.
  • * Grew
  • The most high God, in all things appertaining unto this life, for sundry wise ends alternates the disposition of good and evil.
  • To happen, succeed, or act by turns; to follow reciprocally in place or time; followed by with .
  • The flood and ebb tides alternate with each other.
  • To vary by turns.
  • ''The land alternates between rocky hills and sandy plains.

    Derived terms

    * alternate allegation * alternate angles * alternate generation * alternately * alternation

    See also

    * alternative * variant

    adjust

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To modify.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= A new prescription , passage=As the world's drug habit shows, governments are failing in their quest to monitor every London window-box and Andean hillside for banned plants. But even that Sisyphean task looks easy next to the fight against synthetic drugs. No sooner has a drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one.}}
  • To improve or rectify.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
  • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (the average of the 15 poorest countries’ own poverty lines, measured in 2005 dollars and adjusted for differences in purchasing power): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • To settle an insurance claim.
  • To change to fit circumstances.
  • Synonyms

    * (to modify something) change, edit, modify, set

    Derived terms

    (terms derived from adjust) * adjustable * adjuster * adjustment * disadjust * misadjust * overadjust * readjust