ALTERNATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does alternation mean? 

• ALTERNATION (noun)
  The noun ALTERNATION has 1 sense:

1. successive change from one thing or state to another and back again

  Familiarity information: ALTERNATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ALTERNATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Successive change from one thing or state to another and back again

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

a trill is a rapid alternation between the two notes

Hypernyms ("alternation" is a kind of...):

sequence; succession (the action of following in order)

Derivation:

alternate (do something in turns)

alternate (go back and forth; swing back and forth between two states or conditions)

 Context examples 

Miss Crawford was soon to leave Mansfield, and on this circumstance the “no” and the “yes” had been very recently in alternation.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

His whole life appears to be spent in an alternation between savage fits of passion and gloomy intervals of sulking.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A unit of frequency equal to the frequency at which one complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon, alternation, event, or sequence of events occurs per unit of time equal to one second.

(Cycle per Second, NCI Thesaurus)

Dark as it was getting, I could still see these changes, though but as mere alternations of light and shade; for colour had faded with the daylight.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A unit of frequency equal to the frequency at which one complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon, alternation, event, or sequence of events occurs per unit of time equal to one minute.

(Cycle per Minute, NCI Thesaurus)

I could not tell whether it was the wine which he had taken at supper or the excitement of Boy Jim’s victory which was affecting Harrison, but his usually placid face wore a most disturbed expression, and his manner seemed to betray an alternation of exultation and embarrassment.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The rest of the half-year is a jumble in my recollection of the daily strife and struggle of our lives; of the waning summer and the changing season; of the frosty mornings when we were rung out of bed, and the cold, cold smell of the dark nights when we were rung into bed again; of the evening schoolroom dimly lighted and indifferently warmed, and the morning schoolroom which was nothing but a great shivering-machine; of the alternation of boiled beef with roast beef, and boiled mutton with roast mutton; of clods of bread-and-butter, dog's-eared lesson-books, cracked slates, tear-blotted copy-books, canings, rulerings, hair-cuttings, rainy Sundays, suet-puddings, and a dirty atmosphere of ink, surrounding all.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

When Laurie first went to college, he fell in love about once a month, but these small flames were as brief as ardent, did no damage, and much amused Jo, who took great interest in the alternations of hope, despair, and resignation, which were confided to her in their weekly conferences.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

His changes of mood did not offend me, because I saw that I had nothing to do with their alternation; the ebb and flow depended on causes quite disconnected with me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)