alone
pronunciation
How to pronounce alone in British English:
UK [əˈləʊn]
How to pronounce alone in American English:
US [əˈloʊn]
-
- Adjective:
- isolated from others
- lacking companions or companionship
- exclusive of anyone or anything else
- radically distinctive and without equal
-
- Adverb:
- without any others being included or involved
- without anybody else
Word Origin
- alone
- alone: [13] Although partly disguised by its pronunciation, alone is in fact simply a compound of all and one (whose /wun/ pronunciation began to develop around the 15th century). In Old English it was a completely separate phrase, all āna, literally ‘completely by oneself’, but by the 13th century this had coalesced into a single word. Loss of its initial ain the 14th century gave rise to the adjective lone.=> all, lone, one
- alone (adj., adv.)
- c. 1300 contraction of all ane, from Old English all ana "unaccompanied, all by oneself," from all "all, wholly" (see all) + an "one" (see one). Similar compounds are found in German (allein) and Dutch (alleen).
Synonym
Antonym
Example
- 1. But regulators cannot go it alone .
- 2. My mother sits alone in her room .
- 3. Yield alone is not the whole story .
- 4. I felt alone and dirty .
- 5. It alone can discover the truth .