different between erratic vs alternating

English

Alternative forms

• erratick, erraticke, erratique (all obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin erraticus; compare Old French erratique.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???æt?k/
• Rhymes: -æt?k

Adjective

erratic (comparative more erratic, superlative most erratic)

1. unsteady, random; prone to unexpected changes; not consistent

   Henry has been getting erratic scores on his tests: 40% last week, but 98% this week.

2. Deviating from normal opinions or actions; eccentric; odd.

   erratic conduct

Antonyms

• consistent

Derived terms

• erratical
• erratically
• erraticness

Translations

Noun

erratic (plural erratics)

1. (geology) A rock moved from one location to another, usually by a glacier.
   • 2003, Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, BCA 2003, p. 372:

     The term for a displaced boulder is an erratic, but in the nineteenth century the expression seemed to apply more often to the theories than to the rocks.

2. Anything that has erratic characteristics.

Synonyms

• (glaciers): dropstone

Translations

Anagrams

• Cartier, cartier, cirrate, rice rat

English

Verb

alternating

1. present participle of alternate

Adjective

alternating (not comparable)

1. That alternates.
2. (mathematics, of a knot) Having a planar diagram whose crossings alternate between "over" and "under" as one travels along the knot.
3. (mathematics, of a series) Having terms that alternate between positive and negative.
4. (mathematics, of a multilinear mapping with all arguments belonging to the same space) Whose value is zero when any two adjacent arguments are equal.

Translations

Derived terms

• alternating current

Further reading

• Alternating multilinear map on Wikipedia.Wikipedia