One

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /wÊŒn/, wɐn
• Australia IPA: /wan/, wän
• Homophones: won Etymology 1
• non RP, non-standard British IPA: /wÉ’n/
• Rhymes: -É’n
• Homophones: won Etymology 3
• US enPR: wÅ­n, IPA: /wÊŒn/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒn
• Homophones: won Etymology 1
• 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.

Alternative forms

• wone, o both obsolete
• Arabic numeral: 1 see for numerical forms in other scripts
• Roman numeral: I

Origin

From Middle English one, oon, on, oan, an, from Old English ān ("one"; same word as an), from Proto-Germanic *ainaz ("one"), from Proto-Indo-European *óynos ("single, one"). Cognate with Scots ae, ane, wan, yin ("one"); North Frisian ån ("one"); Saterland Frisian aan ("one"); West Frisian ien ("one"); Dutch een, één ("one"); German Low German een; German ein, eins ("one"); Swedish en ("one"); Icelandic einn ("one"); Latin unus ("one") (Old Latin oinos); Russian один.

Numeral

numeral

1. (cardinal) A numerical value equal to 1; the first number in the set of natural numbers (especially in number theory); the cardinality of the smallest nonempty set. Ordinal: first.There is only one Earth.In many cultures, a baby turns one year old a year after its birth.One person, one vote.
• Grey Riders|8Venters began to count them—one—two—three—four—on up to sixteen.
2. The ordinality of an element which has no predecessor, usually called first or number one.

Synonyms

Full definition of one

Pronoun

1. (impersonal pronoun) One thing (among a group of others); one member of a group.
   The big one looks good.  I want the green one.  A good driver is one who drives carefully.
2. (impersonal pronoun, sometimes with "the") The first mentioned of two things or people, as opposed to the other.
   She offered him an apple and an orange; he took one and left the other.
• 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversationsStudy gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
3. (indefinite personal pronoun) Any person (applying to people in general).
   One shouldn’t be too quick to judge.
   One’s guilt may trouble one, but it is best not to let oneself be troubled by things which cannot be changed.
• 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher Chapter 1, As one sat on the sward behind the elm, with the back turned on the rick and nothing in front but the tall elms and the oaks in the other hedge, it was quite easy to fancy it the verge of the prairie with the backwoods close by.
• 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 2, She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace,...; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, ... — all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 5, ‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’
• Schuster Hepaticae V|viiWith fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get...
• 2013-09-06, Philip Hoare, If we're all Martians, who are the aliens?, One has to admire the sheer optimism of modern science: I love the fact that there is such a discipline as astrobiology, whose practitioners' task is to imagine what life might be like on other planets. Yet here on the home planet we have profoundly strange aliens of our own.
4. (pronoun) Any person, entity or thing.
   "driver", noun: one who drives.

Synonyms

• (unidentified person) you, they in nominative personal case.

Derived terms

• oneness
• oneself

Noun

1. (mathematics) The neutral element with respect to multiplication in a ring.
2. The digit or figure 1.
3. (US) A one-dollar bill.
4. (cricket) One run scored by hitting the ball and running between the wickets; a single.
5. A joke or amusing anecdote.
• Did you hear the one about the agnostic dyslexic insomniac?
6. (Internet slang, leet, sarcastic) Used instead of ! to amplify an exclamation, imitating unskilled users who forget to press the shift key while typing exclamation points.A: SUM1 Hl3p ME im alwyz L0ziN!!?!B: y d0nt u just g0 away l0zer!!1!!one!!one!!eleven!!1!
• 2003 September 26, "DEAL WITH IT!!!!11one!!", in alt.games.video.nintendo.gamecube, Usenet
• 2004 November 9, "AWK sound recorder!!!11!!11one", in comp.lang.awk, Usenet
• 2007 December 1, "STANFORD!!1!!1!one!11!!1oneone!1!1!", in rec.sport.football.college, Usenet
7. (colloquial) A particularly special or compatible person or thing.
• I knew as soon I met him that John was the one for me and we were married within a month.
• That car's the one — I'll buy it.
• 1995, Bryan Adams, Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?When you love a woman then tell herthat she's really wantedWhen you love a woman then tell her that she's the one'cause she needs somebody to tell herthat it's gonna last forever

Synonyms

• (mathematics: multiplicative identity): unity
• (US: one-dollar bill): single
• (sarcastic substitution for !) 1, eleven

Adjective

1. Of a period of time, being particular; as, one morning, one year.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.
2. One day the prince set forth to kill the dragon that had brought terror to his father’s kingdom for centuries.
3. Being a single, unspecified thing; a; any.
   My aunt used to say, "One day is just like the other."
4. Sole, only.
   He is the one man who can help you.
5. Whole, entire.
   Body and soul are not separate; they are one.
6. In agreement.
   We are one on the importance of learning.
7. The same.
   The two types look very different, but are one species.
8. Being a preeminent example.
   He is one hell of a guy.
9. Being an unknown person with the specified name.
   The town records from 1843 showed the overnight incarceration of one “A. Lincoln”.

Derived terms

Related terms

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To cause to become one; to gather into a single whole; to unite.
• ChaucerThe rich folk that embraced and oned all their heart to treasure of the world.

Anagrams

• eon, EON, E.ON; Neo, NEO