How to Use alternately in a Sentence

alternately

adverb
  • 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
  • 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
  • The Lakers alternately attacked the basket or hit 3s in the third.
    Beth Harris, USA TODAY, 24 Jan. 2024
  • 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 method yields images that are streaked and cracked, with surfaces that are alternately riven and raised.
    Mark Jenkins, Washington Post, 20 Oct. 2023
  • Both of them are out at the company their father had alternately promised to them.
    Vulture, 29 May 2023
  • 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
  • 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
  • Add flour and whipping cream (do NOT whip) alternately and add vanilla.
    Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 21 July 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
  • Over an hour and a half, Rodrigo alternately roared and pleaded, stomped and collapsed.
    Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 24 Feb. 2024
  • The case and bracelet are alternately satin-brushed and polished, and there are bevels everywhere, from the bridges to the bezel, and the result is a 3D effect and makes the sand gold appear to change color depending on the light.
    Carol Besler, Forbes, 30 Mar. 2024
  • Many leaders, wars, crises, economic booms and busts have alternately shaped, strained, and strengthened this alliance over the past 250 years.
    TIME, 2 July 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
  • Jones made only three of nine shots, alternately hounded by Osborne and Jaquez.
    Steve Henson, Los Angeles Times, 14 Jan. 2023
  • It’s been alternately down-home and glitzy, old-timey and transgressive, demure and provocative.
    Sarah Hepola, ELLE, 12 Sep. 2022
  • On and off the air, Pendarvis is alternately edgy and shy, depressed and giddy, confident and worried.
    Rodney Ho, ajc, 29 Mar. 2023
  • Police have alternately called the man a suspect and a person of interest.
    Michael Ruiz, Fox News, 17 Oct. 2023
  • Over the course of 10 years, she was alternately found competent and then incompetent to stand trial in court.
    Andrew J. Campa, Los Angeles Times, 28 Feb. 2024
  • The answer can be found in the book’s evocative quotes, alternately mordant and macabre, many of which come from the photographer’s grandmother.
    Devorah Lev-Tov Zoey Poll Caitie Kelly Devorah Lev-Tov Elinor Hitt Jinnie Lee, New York Times, 5 Oct. 2023
  • The band was part of a wave of earnest pop-rock that crossed genres, alternately praised as deft and open-hearted, or denigrated by critics as toothless soft-rock.
    John Wenzel, The Denver Post, 25 July 2024
  • When the original film was released in the summer of 2016, the culture was still throwing cash at the alternately shocking and sweet shenanigans of Seth Rogen‘s budding bro-euvre.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 11 July 2024
  • His keen tenor narrated the events of Jesus’ last hours in tones alternately amazed, anxious and horrified.
    Scott Cantrell, Dallas News, 13 Mar. 2023
  • Gordy and Robinson alternately stood and applauded and clapped along, sometimes singing as well, while the artists sampled the vast Motown catalog.
    Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 5 Feb. 2023
  • Walters alternately suggested this month that the state take over Tulsa’s schools.
    Tyler Kingkade, NBC News, 23 Aug. 2023
  • Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar/yolk mixture.
    Karl Merton Ferron, baltimoresun.com, 8 Oct. 2021
  • In Drive-Away Dolls the conflict between love and choice is alternately dumbfounding and satirical.
    Armond White, National Review, 31 July 2024
  • The parents’ lawyer, alternately, emphasized Dimitrios Pagourtzis’s mental illness and sought to refocus the blame on the shooter himself.
    Andy Rose, CNN, 17 Aug. 2024
  • The trend has alternately delighted and enraged TikTok viewers, who either swoon over the romantic scenes at 35 degrees or fume at the apparent inanity of curating a space most people will never see.
    Scottie Andrew, CNN, 1 Sep. 2024

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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