Loner

How to spell loner

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce loner

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does loner mean?

1. nounA person who prefers to be alone and avoids the company of others.

Loner in a sentence

• He was always a loner, eating lunch by himself at his desk.

• The new recruit struck everyone as a quiet loner who rarely joined group outings.

Where does loner come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word traces back to 'alone', which in Middle English was the two-word phrase 'al one', literally 'all one' or 'wholly by oneself'. Over time the initial 'a' was clipped off in casual use, giving the adjective 'lone', which described something solitary or standing apart. The noun 'loner' is a much more recent American formation, appearing in the early twentieth century, built by adding the agent suffix '-er' to 'lone' to name a person who prefers to be on their own. The same 'one' that hides inside 'alone' is why the word has a single 'o' and an 'n', not the 'oa' of its homophone 'loaner' (something lent out). Remembering that a loner is literally someone left as 'one' helps keep the spelling clear of the loan-related cousin.

How the word is built

• lone (a clipped form of 'alone')
• -er (one who)