Synonyms

alone

American

[uh-lohn] / əˈloʊn /

adjective

separate, apart, or isolated from others.

I want to be alone.

Synonyms:

unattended, unaccompanied, solitary, single
to the exclusion of all others or all else.

One cannot live by bread alone.
unique; unequaled; unparalleled.

He is alone among his peers in devotion to duty.

adverb

solitarily; solo.

She prefers to live alone.
only; exclusively.

You alone hold the key to your happiness.
without aid or help.

The baby let go of the side of the crib and stood alone.

idioms

let alone. let.
leave / let well enough alone, to be satisfied with the existing situation; refrain from attempting to change conditions.

Marriages are often destroyed by relatives who will not let well enough alone.
leave alone. leave.

alone British

/ əˈləʊn /

adjective

apart from another or others; solitary
without anyone or anything else

one man alone could lift it
without equal; unique

he stands alone in the field of microbiology
to the exclusion of others; only

she alone believed him
to refrain from annoying or interfering with
to refrain from interfering with something that is satisfactory
much less; not to mention

he can't afford beer, let alone whisky

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

alone More Idioms

see go it alone; leave someone alone; leave well enough alone; let alone.

Usage

See leave ¹.

Related Words

Alone, lone, lonely, lonesome all imply being without companionship or association. Alone is colorless unless reinforced by all; it then suggests solitariness or desolation: alone in the house; all alone on an island. Lone is somewhat poetic or is intended humorously: a lone sentinel. Lonely implies a sad or disquieting feeling of isolation. Lonesome connotes emotion, a longing for companionship.

Other Word Forms

aloneness noun

Etymology

Origin of alone

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English al one all (in the sense “wholly”) one

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

By 2019, more than half of Iranian immigrants to the U.S. lived in California, with 29% — nearly 140,000 people — living in Los Angeles County alone, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

From Los Angeles Times

Wars fought from the air alone rarely achieve conclusive victories or regime change.

From BBC

Iran alone produces 3.2 million daily barrels of crude oil, with around 2 million of that primarily exported to China for refining, according to OPIS, a unit of Dow Jones, the publisher of MarketWatch.

From MarketWatch

The film’s big ending — where Andie finds Blane alone and ashamed at prom and decides to take him back, culminating in their final kiss — wasn’t part of the final script.

From Salon

He adds, "In the USA alone, tens of thousands of people die every year from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, and that number is rising rapidly. We need new antibiotics to combat this."

From Science Daily

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023