How to Use alternately in a Sentence

alternately

adverb
  • Both of them are out at the company their father had alternately promised to them.
    — Vulture, 29 May 2023
  • At the blowing edge, the air alternately flows more to the inside or the outside of the flute.
    — Jaron Lanier, The New Yorker, 22 July 2023
  • Its current orbit sends it alternately very close to the Earth and then very far away.
    — David Szondy, New Atlas, 10 Oct. 2024
  • The method yields images that are streaked and cracked, with surfaces that are alternately riven and raised.
    — Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2023
  • This part of the state is mostly scrubland, alternately windswept and sunbaked.
    — Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2026
  • Yeoh is fierce and cutthroat in the role, alternately motherly and vicious from one turn to the next.
    — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 4 Jan. 2024
  • The people in the plaza alternately booed and clapped, unsure whether to welcome the détente.
    — Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 15 Jan. 2026
  • This is nothing if not a film of fragments, alternately raucous and off-target.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 14 Mar. 2026
  • The writing is alternately pithy and poignant, and certainly not afraid to turn on a dime, as Thoughts do.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 28 June 2024
  • Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar/yolk mixture.
    — Karl Merton Ferron, baltimoresun.com, 8 Oct. 2021
  • The whimsical design features black horses with manes and tails that are alternately red and pink.
    — Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2026
  • For the biceps, hold a dumbbell in each hand and alternately contract and bring the weight to your chin, then lower slowly.
    — Bryant Stamford, The Courier-Journal, 22 Sep. 2022
  • It’s been alternately down-home and glitzy, old-timey and transgressive, demure and provocative.
    — Sarah Hepola, ELLE, 12 Sep. 2022
  • Police have alternately called the man a suspect and a person of interest.
    — Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 17 Oct. 2023
  • Then alternately fold in 1/3 of dry mixture and 1/3 of milk mixture.
    — Caron Golden, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Sep. 2025
  • With the mixer set on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately with the sour cream in three additions.
    — Lisa Zwirn, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Jan. 2021
  • Over an hour and a half, Rodrigo alternately roared and pleaded, stomped and collapsed.
    — Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2024
  • Jones made only three of nine shots, alternately hounded by Osborne and Jaquez.
    — Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2023
  • The Lakers alternately attacked the basket or hit 3s in the third.
    — Beth Harris, USA TODAY, 24 Jan. 2024
  • The scores are alternately playful and profound, but all of them are ultimately concerned with the truth.
    — Tim Greiving, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2023
  • And work, as this alternately breezy and quite pessimistic crowdpleaser is quick to remind us, isn’t to be taken for granted.
    — Guy Lodge, Variety, 29 Apr. 2026
  • Add flour and whipping cream (do NOT whip) alternately and add vanilla.
    — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 21 July 2023
  • Had my own middle graders come in from the other room, they would have been alternately horrified, scandalized, and bored.
    — Graham Hillard, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Mar. 2025
  • The photos show the Barkleys alternately behind the wheel, gazing out the window, and posing in front of the car.
    — Erin Clements, PEOPLE, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Walters alternately suggested this month that the state take over Tulsa’s schools.
    — Tyler Kingkade, NBC News, 23 Aug. 2023
  • The story is written in first person present tense and told alternately by Kayaliruk and Ibai.
    — David James, Anchorage Daily News, 25 Feb. 2023
  • Add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
    — ExpressNews.com, 6 July 2020
  • Her movements alternately seemed to come from a concentration of spirit and its release.
    — Guillermo Perez, Miami Herald, 7 Oct. 2025
  • So, this alternately cocky and petulant child of privilege insists on a pugilistic path to show up Daddy?
    — Dennis Harvey, Variety, 26 Feb. 2025
  • Participants alternately clenched their toes (rock), spread them apart (paper) and crossed the big toe over the others (scissors).
    — Lindsey Leake, NBC news, 29 Apr. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'alternately.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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