Lone

How to spell lone

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce lone

What does lone mean?

1. adjectiveBeing the only one of its kind in a place; single and unaccompanied.

Lone in a sentence

• A lone figure stood at the far end of the platform.

• The cabin was the lone building for miles in either direction.

Where does lone come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Lone is a clipped form of 'alone', which itself began life in Middle English as the two-word phrase 'all one', meaning 'wholly by oneself'. The 'all' was an intensifier and 'one' carried its ordinary numeral sense, so the original idea was something like 'completely single'. Over time speakers dropped the unstressed first syllable of 'alone', leaving the short adjective 'lone' by around the fourteenth century. Because it was carved out of 'alone' rather than borrowed whole, lone has always worked best in front of a noun, as in 'a lone traveller'. Its close relatives 'only', 'lonely', and 'lonesome' all trace back to the same Old English 'an', meaning 'one', which is also why the spelling keeps that single silent 'e' and is so easily swapped with the unrelated money word 'loan'.

How the word is built

• lone (aphetic shortening of 'alone', from all
• one)

Words that sound like lone

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• loan: A sum of money or an item lent to someone, expected to be returned or repaid.