Lewis & Short

Parsing inflected forms may not always work as expected. If the following does not give the correct word, try Latin Words or Perseus.

alterno, āvi, ātum, 1, v. a. and n. [alternus]: aliquid, to do one thing and then another, to do a thing by turns, to interchange with something, to alternate (first in the poets of the Aug. per., later most freq. in Pliny): alternare vices, Ov. M. 15, 409: alternant spesque timorque fidem, make it at one time credible, at another not, id. H. 6, 38: hirundines in fetu summā aequitate alternant cibum, i. e. give to the young their food in succession, Plin. 10, 33, 49, § 92; so id. 15, 3, 3, § 12; 29, 4, 20, § 68; Col. 5, 6, 4; Sil. 1, 554; 9, 354; 11, 60; * Suet. Ner. 1.
Without an obj.: haec alternanti potior sententia visa est, hesitating, Verg. A. 4, 287: alternantes proelia miscent, fight by turns, id. G. 3, 220: arborum fertilitas omnium fere alternat, alternates, i. e. they bear every other year, Plin. 16, 6, 7, § 18; so id. 31, 3, 23, § 40; 37, 10, 60, § 167.
With cum: cum symphoniā alternāsse, Plin. 10, 29, 43, § 84.