alone

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English

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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

Adjective

alone (comparative more alone, superlative most alone)

  1. By oneself, solitary.
    I can't ask for help because I am alone.
  2. (predicatively, chiefly in the negative) Lacking peers who share one's beliefs, experiences, practices, etc.
    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?
    • 2013 August 23, Ian Traynor, “Rise of Europe's new autocrats”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 11, page 1:
      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.
    • 2021 September 8, Ekua Hagan, “5 Ways to Restore Our Hope”, in Psychology Today:
      If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by it all, you’re not alone.
  3. (obsolete) Apart from, or exclusive of, others.
    • 1662, Jacques Olivier, translated by Richard Banke, A Discourse of Women, Shewing Their Imperfections Alphabetically, →OCLC, page 18:
      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 […]
    • 1692, Richard Bentley, (please specify the sermon), London: , published 1692–1693:
      God, […] by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.
  4. (obsolete) Mere; consisting of nothing further.
    • 1676, Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity ‎:
      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;
  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
    She walked home alone.
  2. Without outside help.
    Synonyms: by oneself, by one's lonesome, singlehandedly; see also Thesaurus:by oneself
    The job was too hard for me to do alone.
  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
      The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.
      • 1788, James Madison, Federalist No. 46‎:
        They must be told, that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the People alone;
    2. Not requiring anything further; merely.
      Oral antibiotics alone won't clear the infection.
      • 1871, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy‎:
        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.
      • 1903, Arthur M. Winfield, The Rover Boys on Land and Sea‎:
        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,
    3. (by extension) Used to emphasize the size or extent of something by selecting a subset.
      Her wardrobe is huge. She has three racks for blazers alone.
      The first sentence alone sold me on the book.
      • 1897, The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton‎:
        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.
      • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
        “[…] 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 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
        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.

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.
    After the children finished playing together, they played alone with their toys. (distributive: each child is playing alone as an individual)
    The representatives presented a united front in the meeting, but when they were alone, they argued about what to do. (collective: the group, made up of representatives, is alone, but each representative is not alone as an individual)

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

  • “alone”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

Italian

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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

Noun

alone m (plural aloni)

  1. halo
  2. glow

Anagrams

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