alone
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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 (not comparable) (predicative only)
- By oneself, solitary.
- I can't ask for help because I am alone.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis ii:18:
- It is not good that the man should be alone.
- 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner:
- Alone on a wide, wide sea.
- (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.
- (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, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:
- God, […] by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.
- (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;
- (obsolete) Unique; rare; matchless.
- c. 1589–1593, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 2, scene 4, lines 163–165:
- Pardon me, Proteus, all I can is nothing / To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; / She is alone.
Derived terms
Translations
by oneself
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Adverb
alone (not comparable)
- By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.
- Synonyms: by one's lonesome, solitarily, solo; see also Thesaurus:solitarily
- She walked home alone.
- 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.
- Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
- 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;
- 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.
- (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.
- 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.
- Not permitting anything further; exclusively.
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
- 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
- you get more with a kind word and a gun than you do with a kind word alone
Translations
by oneself
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without outside help
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only
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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References
- “alone”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
Anagrams
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
Noun
alone m (plural aloni)
Anagrams
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