alone

English Online Dictionary. What means alone‎? What does alone mean?

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈləʊn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈloʊn/, enPR: ə-lōnʹ
• (Hong Kong) IPA^(key): /aˈluŋ/
• Rhymes: -əʊn
• Hyphenation: a‧lone

Adjective

alone (not comparable) (predicative only)

1. By oneself, solitary.
2. (predicatively, chiefly in the negative) Lacking peers who share one's beliefs, experiences, practices, etc.
3. (obsolete) Apart from, or exclusive of, others.
4. (obsolete) Mere; consisting of nothing further.
5. (obsolete) Unique; rare; matchless.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

alone (not comparable)

1. By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.

   Synonyms: by one's lonesome, solitarily, solo; see also Thesaurus:solitarily

2. Without outside help.

   Synonyms: by oneself, by one's lonesome, singlehandedly; see also Thesaurus:by oneself

3. Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
   1. Not permitting anything further; exclusively.

      Synonyms: entirely, solely; see also Thesaurus:solely
   2. Not requiring anything further; merely.
   3. (by extension) Used to emphasize the size or extent of something by selecting a subset.

Usage notes

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

  Only the teacher knew vs. The teacher alone knew

• Like "by themselves", the adverb "alone" may be used with a plural subject, and can have either a collective sense (where the verb and adverb apply to the plural noun phrase as one conceptual whole) or a distributive sense (where the verb and adverb apply separately to each individual referred to by the noun phrase) in this context.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “alone”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Enola, Olena, Leona, NOAEL, Leano, anole

Italian

Etymology

From Latin halōs, from Ancient Greek ἅλως (hálōs); given an n-stem ending as if the Latin term were *halō, accusative *halōnem. Cognate with Sicilian aluni.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈlo.ne/
• Rhymes: -one
• Hyphenation: a‧ló‧ne

Noun

alone m (plural aloni)

1. halo
2. glow

Anagrams

• Noale, aleno, alenò, anelo, anelò