/əˈləʊn/, /əˈloʊn/, /aˈluŋ/
OriginFrom 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.
- not-comparable, predicativeBy oneself, solitary.
“I can't ask for help because I am alone.”
“It is not good that the man should be alone.”
“Alone on a wide, wide sea.”
- not-comparable, predicativeNot involved in a romantic relationship.
- not-comparable, predicativeLacking 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?”
“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 in”
- not-comparable, obsolete, predicativeApart from, or exclusive of, others.
“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[…]”
“God, […] by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.”
- not-comparable, obsolete, predicativeMere; consisting of nothing further.
“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, proceed”
- not-comparable, obsolete, predicativeUnique; rare; matchless.
“Pardon me, Proteus, all I can is nothing / To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; / She is alone.”
- not-comparable, predicativeBy oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.
- not-comparable, predicativeWithout outside help.
“The job was too hard for me to do alone.”
- not-comparable, predicativeNot permitting anything further; exclusively.
“The president alone has the power to initiate a nuclear launch.”
“They must be told, that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the People alone;”
“The Senate (A.U.C. 514) decreed that the eldest son alone should bear his father's praenomen.”
- not-comparable, predicativeNot requiring anything further; merely.
“Oral antibiotics alone won't clear the infection.”
“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 eco”
“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,”
- broadly, not-comparable, predicativeUsed 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.”
“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 ”