All 9 Uses

alternative
in
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
(Edited)

You need to understand that there are alternatives.
p. 164.9 *

alternatives = other possibilities
It sounded so rational, the alternatives so clear.
p. 167.5

alternatives = possibilities
That is, the dire wolf may have been something entirely separate from Canis lupus, an alternative form that natural selection toyed with and discarded.
p. 176.6

alternative = other possibility
Yet, he felt there must be an alternative, neither willfulness nor resignation.
p. 229.1
And did you have an alternative in mind?
p. 256.8
Not some imaginary alternative, as if it's a choice we could make.
p. 257.8
Whenever he was forced to detour around an obstacle, he chose the northernmost alternative.
p. 334.7

alternative = possibility
He was thinking about this problem, circling it and drawing out the alternatives in his mind, when through the trees he glimpsed sunlight reflecting off water.
p. 339.9

alternatives = possibilities
If Henry knew the alternative, he thought, he'd like it even less.
p. 451.5

alternative = other possibility

Definitions:

(1) (alternative as in: an alternative plan)
a different choice or possibility, or describing something that offers a different choice or possibility
(2) (alternative as in: alternative medicine)
non-traditional or non-standard
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)