Definition of "alternating"

present participle and gerund of alternate  examples

That alternates.  examples

(mathematics, of a knot) Having a planar diagram whose crossings alternate between "over" and "under" as one travels along the knot.  examples

(mathematics, of a series) Having terms that alternate between positive and negative.  examples

(mathematics, of a multilinear mapping with all arguments belonging to the same space) Whose value is zero when any two adjacent arguments are equal.  examples