alone
Part of speech: adj
adv
Morphological type: derivation
Etymology: Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der.?
Proto-Indo-European *h₂elnós
Proto-Germanic *allaz
Proto-West Germanic *all
Old English eall
Proto-Indo-European *ís?
Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos
Proto-Germanic *ainaz
Proto-West Germanic *ain
Old English ān
Old English eall ān
Middle English all oon
Middle English allone
English alone
From Middle English allone, from earlier all oon (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. For the different phonological development of alone and one, see the note in one.
Base: one
Affixes: al-
Inflected forms:
Senses:
gloss: By oneself, solitary.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
predicative
examples: I can't ask for help because I am alone.
It is not good that the man should be alone.
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
When Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by U.S. special forces during a historic raid in his native homeland, he wasn't alone. His wife, Cilia Flores, was also detained.
gloss: By oneself, solitary.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
predicative
gloss: Lacking peers who share one's beliefs, experiences, practices, etc.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
predicative
examples: Senator Craddock wants to abolish the estate tax, and she's not alone.
I always organize my Halloween candy before eating it. Am I alone in this?
Hungary's leader is not alone in eastern and southern Europe, where democratically elected populist strongmen increasingly dominate, deploying the power of the state and a battery of instruments of intimidation to crush dissent, demonise opposition, tame the media and tailor the system to their ends.
If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by it all, you’re not alone.
gloss: Apart from, or exclusive of, others.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
predicative
examples: There are proofs enough in History, and first that beautiful Hynes, so much beloved by Charles the seventh King of France, who valued the alone possession of her Love at so high a rate, that[…]
God, […] by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.
gloss: Mere; consisting of nothing further.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
predicative
examples: and therefore all Killing, Banishing, Fining, Imprisoning, and other such things, which Men are afflicted with, for the alone exercise of their Conscience, or difference in Worship or Opinion, proceedeth from the spirit of Cain, the Murderer, and is contrary to the Truth;
gloss: Unique; rare; matchless.
pos: adj
tags: not-comparable
obsolete
predicative
examples: Pardon me, Proteus, all I can is nothing / To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; / She is alone.
gloss: By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
predicative
examples: She walked home alone.
gloss: Without outside help.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
predicative
examples: The job was too hard for me to do alone.
gloss: Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
predicative
examples: The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.
They must be told, that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the People alone;
The Senate (A.U.C. 514) decreed that the eldest son alone should bear his father's praenomen.
gloss: Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
predicative
examples: Oral antibiotics alone won't clear the infection.
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.
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,
gloss: Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
pos: adv
tags: broadly
not-comparable
predicative
examples: Her wardrobe is huge. She has three racks for blazers alone.
The first sentence alone sold me on the book.
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.
“[…] 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.”
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.
Derived words: all alone
alonely
alonement
aloneness
bowling alone thesis
leave it alone
leave things alone
let it alone
let things alone
quirkyalone
take it or leave it alone
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
walk alone
you get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone
Translations:
lang: Aramaic
word: לחוד
roman: lḥūd
lang: Belarusian
word: сам
roman: sam
lang: Belarusian
word: адзі́н
roman: adzín
lang: Bulgarian
word: сам
roman: sam
lang: Catalan
word: sol
lang: Cherokee
word: ᎤᏩᏌ
roman: uwasa
lang: Czech
word: sám
lang: Danish
word: alene
lang: Dutch
word: alleen
lang: Egyptian
word: wa:D36*Z1
roman: wꜥ
lang: Esperanto
word: sola
lang: Finnish
word: yksinään
lang: Finnish
word: yksinäinen
lang: French
word: seul
lang: Galician
word: só
lang: German
word: allein
lang: German
word: eläi
lang: Bavarian German
word: alloa
lang: Ancient Greek
word: μόνος
roman: mónos
lang: Hindi
word: अकेला
roman: akelā
lang: Hungarian
word: egyedül
lang: Icelandic
word: einn
lang: Indonesian
word: sendiri
lang: Indonesian
word: sendirian
lang: Irish
word: aonraic
lang: Italian
word: solo
lang: Italian
word: da solo
lang: Latin
word: sōlus
lang: Malayalam
word: ഒറ്റക്ക്
roman: oṟṟakkŭ
lang: Marathi
word: एकटा
roman: ekṭā
lang: Marathi
word: एकटी
roman: ekṭī
lang: Marathi
word: एकटे
roman: ekṭe
lang: Central Sierra Miwok
word: kéŋ·e-t·i-
lang: Occitan
word: sol
lang: Odia
word: ଏକଲା
roman: Ekaḻā
lang: Old English
word: ān
lang: Pannonian Rusyn
word: сам
roman: sam
lang: Polish
word: sam
lang: Portuguese
word: sozinho
lang: Portuguese
word: só
lang: Romanian
word: singur
lang: Russian
word: оди́н
roman: odín
lang: Russian
word: сам
roman: sam
lang: Sardinian
word: solu
lang: Sicilian
word: sulu
lang: Slovak
word: sám
lang: Spanish
word: solo
lang: Swedish
word: ensam
lang: Sylheti
word: ꠄꠇꠟꠣ
roman: exola
lang: Turkish
word: yalnız
lang: Ottoman Turkish
word: یالڭز
roman: yalñız
lang: Ukrainian
word: сам
roman: sam
lang: Ukrainian
word: оди́н
roman: odýn
lang: Urdu
word: اَکیلَا
roman: akelā
lang: Urdu
word: تنہا
roman: tanhā