• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒl.tə/, /ˈɔːl.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɔl.təɹ/
  • (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /ˈɑl.təɹ/

• Audio (General American):

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• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɒltə(ɹ), -ɔːltə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: al‧ter
• Homophone: altar

From Old French alterer (French altérer), from Medieval Latin alterāre (“to make other”), from Latin alter (“the other”), from al- (seen in alius (“other”), alienus (“of another”), etc.; see alias, alien, etc.) + compar. suffix -ter.

alter (third-person singular simple present alters, present participle altering, simple past and past participle altered)

1. (ambitransitive) To change the form or structure of.

   Near-synonym: tweak

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     No power in Venice can alter a decree.

   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 116”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature H, recto:

     Lou's not Times foole, though roſie lips and cheeks
     VVithin his bending ſickles compaſſe come,
     Loue alters not with his breefe houres and vveekes,
     But beares it out euen to the edge of doome:
     If this be error and vpon me proued,
     I neuer vvrit, nor no man euer loued.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 89:34:

     My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

   • 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:

     It gilds all objects, but it alters none.

2. (intransitive) To become different.
   • 1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:

     […] Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul, / Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song, […]

3. (transitive) To tailor clothes to make them fit.
4. (transitive) To castrate, neuter or spay (a dog or other animal).
5. (transitive) To affect mentally, as by psychotropic drugs or illness.
   • 2016 February 10, Sydney Pruitt and Claire Ricke (quoting Jeff Barrick), "Police: Man lying in street hit, killed by Capital Metro bus", KXAN:

     We don't know if he was altered on alcohol or drugs or anything […]

• altre (obsolete)

• “alter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “alter”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Probably from alter ego.

alter (plural alters)

2. (psychology, multiplicity) One of the personalities, identities, or selves in a person with dissociative identity disorder or another form of multiplicity.

   Synonym: headmate

   • 2000, Elyn R. Saks, Stephen H. Behnke, Jekyll on Trial: Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Law, page 147:

     While the second goal would be best met if each alter were coconscious, the defendant should be satisfied if at least one competent alter is present to hear what transpires.

• MPD/DID Glossary
• DID Research: Alters

alter

1. Misspelling of altar.
   • 2002, Nicholas Smeed, Resurrections: Vignettes About Discovery, Relationships, Personal Empowerment, And Preternatural Experiences, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 26:

     As an alter boy he remembered that walking between the alter and the gates was prohibited for everyone except the priest.

   • 2007, Jerry P. Martinez, Leche De Coyote, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 39:

     The hardest part of being an alter boy was learning Latin. The mass was conducted in Latin and we had to learn to pray in Latin.

   • 2009, Todd Sprague, Survive, Todd Sprague, →ISBN, page 142:

     On the alter, several candles sat unlit. An open bible rested among the candles. Behind the alter, hanging high, a huge cross was affixed to the wall, with a replica of Jesus in rags nailed to it. A simple wooden door stood closed behind the alter […]

   • 2011, Suzanne Dekeyzer James, The Stone Harp, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 146:

     Truth motioned to Alexandra, “There; the key is kept on the alter.” She spotted it easily, for it was now well lighted by an amber colored presence light. She and the others moved quickly toward the alter.

   • 2018, William Francis Jack, Alter Boy Rules, Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

     Third-rate alter boy. Skinny, lousy face, brown hair with a cowlick as big as Sputtnik. So as not to go on about it, I can put it in one word: Butt-ugly.

• alter kaker

• Alert, alert, altre, artel, later, ratel, taler, telar

Danish Wikipedia has an article on:

alter

Wikipedia ^da

From Old Norse altari, from Old Saxon altari, from Late Latin altare (“altar”). Cognate with English altar and German Altar.

• IPA^(key): [ˈald̥ɐ]

alter n (singular definite altret or alteret, plural indefinite altre)

1. (religion) altar, a table or a platform for making sacrifices.
2. (Christianity) altar, the ritual space of a Christian church.

“alter” in Den Danske Ordbog

• IPA^(key): /ˈʔaltɐ/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

alter

1. inflection of alt:
   1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
   2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
   3. strong genitive plural

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈaltər/ [ˈal.t̪ər]
• Rhymes: -altər
• Syllabification: al‧ter

From English alter, from Old French alterer (French altérer), from Medieval Latin alterare (“to make other”), from Latin alter (“the other”).

altêr

1. to alter, to tailor clothes to make them fit

altêr

1. (colloquial) clipping of alter ego

• “alter”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

From Proto-Italic *aliteros (“the other of two”). Akin to alius. Compare with ulter.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈaɫ.tɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈal.ter]

alter (feminine altera, neuter alterum); first/second-declension determiner (nominative masculine singular in -er, pronominal declension)

1. the other, the second
2. the one...the other (alter...alter)
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico VII.17:

     De re frumentaria Boios atque Aeduos adhortari non destitit; quorum alteri, [...] non multum adiuvabant, alteri non magnis facultatibus, [...] celeriter quod habuerunt consumpserunt

     He never ceased to urge the Boii and Aedui for supplies; of whom the one (Aedui) [...] did not help much, the others (Boii) as their resources was not great, [...] quickly consumed what they had

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er, pronominal declension).

• AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1444: “l'altro raccoglie” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
• ALF: Atlas Linguistique de la France^[1] – map 76 – on lig-tdcge.imag.fr
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002), “alter”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 353

• “alter”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “alter”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “alter”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • one or two days: unus et alter dies
    
  • one, two, several days had passed, intervened: dies unus, alter, plures intercesserant
    

Akin to Italian altro, from Latin alter.

alter

1. other

Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:

alter

Wikipedia ^no

alter n (definite singular alteret / altret, indefinite plural alter / altere / altre, definite plural altera / altra / altrene)

1. an altar

alter m

1. indefinite plural of alt

Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:

altar

Wikipedia ⁿⁿ

• altar

alter n (definite singular alteret, indefinite plural alter, definite plural altera)

1. an altar

altēr

1. strong masculine nominative singular of alt