alone
Language: English
Part of speech: adv
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈləʊn/
ipa: /əˈloʊn/
enpr: ə-lōnʹ
ipa: /aˈluŋ/
note: Dublin
ipa: /əˈlʌon/
rhymes: -əʊn
Etymology: From Middle English allone, from earlier all oon (“alone”, literally “all one”), contracted from the Old English phrase eall ān (“completely alone”), equivalent to al- (“all”) + one. Cognate with Scots alane (“alone”), Saterland Frisian alleene (“alone”), West Frisian allinne (“alone”), Dutch alleen (“alone”), Low German alleen (“alone”), German allein (“alone”), Danish alene (“alone”), Swedish allena (“alone”). More at all and one. Regarding the different phonological development of alone and one, see the note in one.
Senses: examples: text: She walked home alone.
synonyms: word: by one's lonesome
word: solitarily
word: solo
word: alone
word: by one's lonesome
word: by oneself
word: isolatedly
word: lonelily
word: on one's bill
word: on one's lonesome
word: on one's tod
word: singlely
word: singly
word: solitarily
word: solo
glosses: By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.
examples: text: The job was too hard for me to do alone.
synonyms: word: by oneself
word: by one's lonesome
word: singlehandedly
word: alone
word: by oneself
word: by one's lonesome
word: on one's lonesome
word: on one's own
word: single-handed
word: single-handedly
word: singly
word: unaidedly
word: unassisted
word: unassistedly
glosses: Without outside help.
examples: text: The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.
text: They must be told, that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the People alone;
ref: 1788, James Madison, Federalist No. 46^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Federalist_(Dawson)/45):
text: The Senate (A.U.C. 514) decreed that the eldest son alone should bear his father's praenomen.
ref: 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xv:
glosses: Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
Not permitting anything further; exclusively.
synonyms: word: entirely
word: solely
word: alone
word: entirely
word: exclusively
word: expressly
word: only
word: solely
word: wholly
examples: text: Oral antibiotics alone won't clear the infection.
text: Except on matters of mere detail, there are perhaps no practical questions, even among those which approach nearest to the character of purely economical questions, which admit of being decided on economical premises alone.
ref: 1871, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Principles_of_Political_Economy_(Mill),_vol._1):
text: In writing this tale I had in mind not alone to please my young readers, but also to give them a fair picture of life on the ocean as it is to-day,
ref: 1903, Arthur M. Winfield, The Rover Boys on Land and Sea:
glosses: Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
Not requiring anything further; merely.
examples: text: Her wardrobe is huge. She has three racks for blazers alone.
text: The first sentence alone sold me on the book.
text: In the first place, though Lady Burton published comparatively little, she was a voluminous writer, and she left behind her such a mass of letters and manuscripts that the sorting of them alone was a formidable task.
ref: 1897, The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton:
text: “[…] it is not fair of you to bring against mankind double weapons ! Dangerous enough you are as woman alone, without bringing to your aid those gifts of mind suited to problems which men have been accustomed to arrogate to themselves.”
ref: 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.
ref: 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
glosses: Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
Used to emphasize the size or extent of something by selecting a subset.
Derived terms: alone in a crowd
forever alone
go it alone
go-it-alone
leave alone
leave me alone
leave well alone
leave well enough alone
let alone
let well alone
let well enough alone
man shall not live by bread alone
misfortunes never come alone
sauce-alone
stand-alone
time alone will tell
walk-alone
you get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone