Alone

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /əˈləʊn/
• GenAm IPA: /əˈloÊŠn/
• Hong Kong IPA: /ɐˈluÅ‹/
• Rhymes: -əʊn
• Hyphenation: a + lone
• one and once are pronounced differently from the related words alone, only and atone. Stressed vowels often become diphthongs over time (Latin bona → Italian buona and Spanish buena), and this happened in the to the words one and once, first recorded ca 1400: the vowel underwent some changes, from ōn → ōōōn → wōn → wōōn → wŏŏn → wÅ­n.

Origin

From Middle English al one ("alone", literally all one), contracted from the Old English phrase eall āna ("entirely alone, solitary, single"), equivalent to -("all") + one. Cognate with Scots allane ("alone"). Compare also West Frisian allinne ("alone"), Dutch alleen ("alone"), German allein ("alone"), Danish alene ("alone"). More at all, one.

Full definition of alone

Adjective

1. By oneself, solitary.
   I can't ask for help because I am alone.
• Bible, Genesis ii. 18It is not good that the man should be alone.
• Samuel Taylor ColeridgeAlone on a wide, wide sea.
2. Apart from, or exclusive of, others.
   Jones alone could do it.
• BentleyGod, by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.
3. Considered separately.
• 1910, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price Chapter 1, “… 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.”
• 2013-05-25, No hiding place, 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.
4. Without equal.
• 2013-08-23, Ian Traynor, Rise of Europe's new autocrats, 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.
5. (obsolete) Unique; rare; matchless.

Usage notes

Used after what it modifies.

Adverb

1. By one's self; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.
   She walked home alone.
2. Without outside help.
   The job was to hard for me to do alone.
3. Exclusively.
   The responsibility is theirs alone.

Usage notes

Unlike most focusing adverbs, alone typically appears after a noun phrase.

''

Only the teacher knew vs. The teacher

alone knew''

Synonyms

• (by oneself) lone, lonely, single, solitary, solo
• (without outside help) singlehandedly, by myself
• (exclusively)

Derived terms

• alonely
• leave alone
• let alone

Anagrams

• anole
• Leona