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ng 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 state of being subalternate; succession of turns; subordination.

Alternateness; alternation. [R.] Mitford.

By alternation; when, in a proportion, the antecedent term is compared with antecedent, and consequent.

Succession by turns; alternation. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

In public bodies; Any alternation made or proposed to be made in a bill or motion by adding, changing, substituting, or omitting.

To sound with more or less rapid alternations of greater and less intensity, so as to produce a pulsating effect; -- said of instruments, tones, or vibrations, not perfectly in unison. A beating wind (Naut.), a wind which necessitates tacking in order to make progress. -- To beat about, to try to find; to search by va…

iversify with different qualities, color, scenes, or events; esp., to subject to frequent alternations of prosterity and adversity. Our minds are, as it were, checkered with truth and falsehood. Addison.

State of diversity or variation; variegation; modification; change; alternation. Infinite diversifications of tints may be produced. Adventurer.

den. Ebb and flow, the alternate ebb and flood of the tide; often used figuratively. This alternation between unhealthy activity and depression, this ebb and flow of the industrial. A. T. Hadley.

magnetic theory of light (Physics), a theory of light which makes it consist in the rapid alternation of transient electric currents moving transversely to the direction of the ray.

In the alternation of generations in plants, that generation or phase which bears sex organs. In the lower plants, as the algæ, the gametophyte is the conspicuous part of the plant body; in mosses it is the so-called moss plant; in ferns it is reduced to a small, early perishing body; and in seed plants it is usually m…

Passing through the different stages in its life history on an alternation of hosts, as the common wheat-rust fungus (Puccinia graminis), and certain other parasitic fungi; -- contrasted with autocious. -- Het`er*o"cism (#), n.

Alternate succession; alternation; a mingling. The interchanges of light and darkness. Holder. Sweet interchange Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains. Milton.

Alternation of sexual and asexual or gemmiparous generations; - - in distinction from heterogamy.

nits, objects, letters, etc., in all possible orders, one after the other; -- called also alternation. Cf. Combination, n., 4.

A melodic embellishment consisting of the quick alternation of a principal tone with an auxiliary tone above it, usually the next of the scale; --called also the inverted mordente.

ir, or other fluids; and electricity, obtained by chemical action, and applied to produce alternation of magnetic force. (b) An engine, or machine, the object of which is to receive and modify force and motion as supplied by some natural source, and apply them to drive other machines; as a water wheel, a water- pressur…

One of the divisions of the year, marked by alternations in the length of day and night, or by distinct conditions of temperature, moisture, etc., caused mainly by the relative position of the earth with respect to the sun. In the north temperate zone, four seasons, namely, spring, summer, autumn, and winter, are gener…

A rapid alternation of a principal tone with another represented on the next degree of the staff above or below it; a trill.