alternately

/ˈɔltərnətli/

When something happens by turns, first one way and then another, it occurs alternately. You might spend a long train trip alternately gazing out the window and scrolling on your phone.

There are two ways to use this adverb: first, to mean "in an alternating pattern," or going back and forth from one thing to another. Spend a race alternately running and stopping to tie your shoes and you're probably not going to win. It also means "here's another possibility," so you might say: "I'm ordering the fish. Alternately, I'll get the fries and a salad." Alternately has a Latin root that means "to do one thing, then the other."

Definitions of alternately

1. adverb

   in an alternating sequence or position
   “They were deglycerolized by alternately centrifuging and mixing”

   “he planted fir and pine trees alternately”