alterous

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UK/ˈɒltəɹəs/UK/ˈɔːltəɹəs/US/ˈɔltɚəs/cot caught merger/ˈɑltɚəs/

adjective

Pertaining to or characterized by alterity (otherness, the entity in contrast to which an identity is constructed); other.

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Meanings

adjectivealterous (not comparable)
  1. not comparablePertaining to or characterized by alterity (otherness, the entity in contrast to which an identity is constructed); other.

    The appeal from things is an appeal to abandon oneself to things, to give oneself to alterous relations, and therefore to make of oneself a gift, […] How to celebrate things in their alterity becomes the ethical question waiting for an answer.

    2000, Silvia Benso, The Face of Things: A Different Side of Ethics, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 158
    3 more examples

    […] capacities as lines whose inflexions sediment inexhaustible ways of flexing to these encounters with the world. They do so by bending their initial and present sedimented complex of senses to alterity or to what is alterous in the environment.

    2012, S.B. Mallin, Art Line Thought, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 249

    Titchkosky suggests that disability can be a discursive mechanism for analyzing intersections of different (and alterous) […] it can serve as a prime discursive field where the meaning of alterity under contemporary conditions can be considered.

    2013, Mosaic

    page 104: Identity and alterity are thus seen to be embedded within an individual – a view which incorporates Carl Jung's notion of the 'alterous' shadow (1938). Working with this concept of alterity can offer a fresh means of exploring the interpersonal […] page 116: On a cline of alterity, animating is placed as the 'least alterous' L2 performance role. In animating, as in acting, of course the speaker's personality remains, but her/his expression of L2 is now more limited; and educationally, this role offers another kind of learning experience ...

    2016, Ross Forman, First and Second Language Use in Asian EFL, Multilingual Matters, →ISBN
  2. not comparablePertaining to or characterized by an attraction to someone which is intermediate between platonic and romantic.

    These attractions might include, but are not limited to: sexual, romantic, platonic, aesthetic, and alterous attractions.

    2016, Ashley Mardell, The ABC's of LGBT+, Mango Media Inc., →ISBN
    1 more example

    These include: the (nonsexual, nonromantic) aesthetic attraction, platonic attraction, sensual attraction and alterous attraction. Together, these complexify the field of attraction per se to the point that the heterosexual matrix becomes […]

    2018, Rob Cover, Emergent Identities: New Sexualities, Genders and Relationships in a Digital Era, Routledge, →ISBN

Origin

From or related to alter(ity) + -ous.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

ursolaterosulateoestrual
Cite this entry
APA

alterous. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alterous

MLA

“alterous.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alterous. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “alterous,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alterous.

Source: alterous on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.