Definition of "alone"

alone

/əˈləʊn/

adjective
comparative more alone, superlative most alone
1. By oneself, solitary.
  Quotations
  It is not good that the man should be alone.
  1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Genesis ii:18
  Alone on a wide, wide sea.
  1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
2. (predicatively, chiefly in the negative) Lacking peers who share one's beliefs, experiences, practices, etc.
  Quotations
  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.
  2013 August 23, Ian Traynor, “Rise of Europe's new autocrats”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 11, page 1
  If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed by it all, you’re not alone.
  2021 September 8, Ekua Hagan, “5 Ways to Restore Our Hope”, in Psychology Today
3. (obsolete) Apart from, or exclusive of, others.
  Quotations
  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 […]
  1662, Jacques Olivier, translated by Richard Banke, A Discourse of Women, Shewing Their Imperfections Alphabetically, page 18
  God, […] by whose alone power and conversation we all live, and move, and have our being.
  1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693
4. (obsolete) Mere; consisting of nothing further.
  Quotations
  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;
  1676, Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity […] ‎
5. (obsolete) Unique; rare; matchless.
  Quotations
  Pardon me, Proteus, all I can is nothing / To her, whose worth makes other worthies nothing; / She is alone.
  c. 1589–1593, William Shakespeare, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, act 2, scene 4, lines 163–165
adverb
not comparable
1. By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo.
2. Without outside help.
3. Focus adverb, typically modifying a noun and occurring immediately after it.
  1. Not permitting anything further; exclusively.
    Quotations
    They must be told, that the ultimate authority, wherever the derivative may be found, resides in the People alone;
    1788, James Madison, Federalist No. 46‎
  2. Not requiring anything further; merely.
    Quotations
    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.
    1871, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy‎
    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,
    1903, Arthur M. Winfield, The Rover Boys on Land and Sea‎
  3. (by extension) Used to emphasize the size or extent of something by selecting a subset.
    Quotations
    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.
    1897, The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton‎
    “[…] 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.”
    1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company
    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.
    2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74

Definition of "alone"

alone

adjective

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adverb

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