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Alternation vs Alteration - What's the difference?

alternation | alteration |

As nouns the difference between alternation and alteration

is that alternation is the reciprocal succession of (normally two) things in time or place; the act of following and being followed by turns; alternate succession, performance, or occurrence; as, the alternation of day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter, hope and fear while alteration is the act of altering or making different.

alternation

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The reciprocal succession of (normally two) things in time or place; the act of following and being followed by turns; alternate succession, performance, or occurrence; as, the alternation of day and night, cold and heat, summer and winter, hope and fear.
  • The response of the congregation speaking alternately with the minister.
    • (Mason)
  • (linguistics) Ablaut.
  • (logic) The "inclusive or " truth function.
  • (mathematics) A sequence that alternates between positive and negative values. (Sometimes wrongly used to mean a permutation.)
  • (computing) A construct in a regular expression that can match any of several specified subexpressions.

    • alteration

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of altering or making different.
  • * 1594 , , Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity ,
    • …alteration , though it be from worse to better, hath in it inconveniences…
  • The state of being altered; a change made in the form or nature of a thing; changed condition.
  • * 1892 , ,
    • …and I saw by the alteration in your face that a train of thought had been started.
    (Webster 1913)

    References

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