alone
alone Lexical Profile
alone Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Having no one else present; on one's own and separate from others.
"She preferred to be alone in her studio while working on complex paintings."
Feeling isolated, friendless, or without emotional support.
"After moving to a new country, he felt completely alone for the first few weeks."
Unique or without equal in a particular respect (usually placed immediately after the noun or pronoun it modifies).
"You are not alone in finding the new tax regulations difficult to understand."
• adverb
Without anyone else's presence, participation, or assistance; on one's own.
"The explorer trekked across the mountain range alone."
Exclusively; only (used after a noun or pronoun for emphasis).
"The repair costs for the historic building's roof alone exceeded the annual budget."
Word Nuance & Usage
As an adjective, 'alone' is restricted to predicative positions (after a linking verb, as in 'she was alone') or postpositive positions ('time alone will tell'); when modifying a noun directly before it, 'lone', 'solitary', or 'lonely' must be used instead. Additionally, 'alone' describes the objective state of being by oneself, whereas 'lonely' carries the emotional connotation of sadness from lacking companionship.
• Rhymes for alone
Word Origin & Etymology
Middle English 'al one', a contraction of Old English 'all āna', literally meaning 'all by oneself' or 'wholly one'. Over time, the two words fused into a single compound, and the pronunciation shifted as the root 'one' diverged phonetically.