Background for alternations

alternations

/ˌɔltərˈneɪʃənz/ /ˌæltərˈneɪʃənz/

Illustration alternations - Image 1

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

Examples :

"alternation between night shifts and day shifts"

time process frequency nature phenomena

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

The response of the congregation speaking alternately with the minister.

Examples :

"The church service featured beautiful alternations, with the congregation responding to the minister's sermon in a call-and-response style. "

religion ritual communication

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

Examples :

"The past tense forms of some verbs, like "sing, sang, sung," show clear alternations in the vowel sound. "

language linguistics grammar phonetics

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

A pattern by which more than one construct is possible, as with "Alice cooked Bob dinner" and "Alice cooked dinner for Bob".

Examples :

"dative alternation; locative alternation"

grammar language linguistics

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

The "inclusive or" truth function.

Examples :

"The teacher allowed alternations; students could choose to write their essay on either the book or the movie, or even both. "

logic math philosophy language computing

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

A sequence that alternates between positive and negative values; sometimes incorrectly used to mean permutation.

Examples :

"The stock market showed unpredictable alternations between gains and losses throughout the day. "

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

A construct in a regular expression that can match any of several specified subexpressions.

Examples :

"The search query used alternations to find either "cat" or "dog" in the documents. "

computing language technical

Illustration alternations - Image 1

noun

A type of partial truncation of a polygon, polyhedron or tiling in which alternate vertices are removed.

Examples :

"The visual effect of the alternating black and white squares in a checkerboard can be seen as alternations of colored tiles. "