1. [n]  an alternative action; "what option did I have?"; "there no other alternative"; "my only choice is to refuse"
2. [adj]  necessitating a choice between mutually exclusive possibilities; "`either' and `or' in `either this or that'"
3. [adj]  pertaining to unconventional choices; "an alternative life style"
4. [adj]  allowing a choice; "an alternative plan"

ALTERNATIVE is a 11 letter word that starts with A.

1. \Al*ter"na*tive\, a. [Cf. F. alternatif.]
   1. Offering a choice of two things.
   2. Disjunctive; as, an alternative conjunction.
   3. Alternate; reciprocal. [Obs.] --Holland.
   

2. \Al*ter"na*tive\, n. [Cf. F. alternative, LL.
   alternativa.]
   1. An offer of two things, one of which may be chosen, but
      not both; a choice between two things, so that if one is
      taken, the other must be left.
            There is something else than the mere alternative of
            absolute destruction or unreformed existence.
                                                  --Burke.
   2. Either of two things or propositions offered to one's
      choice. Thus when two things offer a choice of one only,
      the two things are called {alternatives}.
            Having to choose between two alternatives, safety
            and war, you obstinately prefer the worse. --Jowett
                                                  (Thucyd.).
   3. The course of action or the thing offered in place of
      another.
            If this demand is refused the alternative is war.
                                                  --Lewis.
            With no alternative but death.        --Longfellow.
   4. A choice between more than two things; one of several
      things offered to choose among.
            My decided preference is for the fourth and last of
            these alternatives.                   --Gladstone.