On

How to spell on

2 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce on

What does on mean?

1. prepositionUsed to show that something is positioned above and touching a surface, or attached to it.
2. adverbIndicating continued action or that something is operating or in progress.

On in a sentence

• preposition

  She left the keys on the kitchen counter.

• adverb

  The heater had been left on all night.

• preposition

  The report is saved on my laptop.

• adverb

  The meeting dragged on for another hour.

Where does on come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This little word descends directly from Old English 'on', also written 'an', a native preposition meaning 'on', 'in', or 'into'. It belongs to the old Germanic family and has close cousins in Dutch 'aan' and German 'an', all going back to a shared ancestral form meaning roughly 'at' or 'upon'. Because it is one of the oldest and most worn-down words in the language, it has stayed stubbornly short and simple, just two letters, and has never picked up a silent letter or doubled consonant. Over the centuries it absorbed the work of several older words, taking on senses of position, contact, and continuation. Its very brevity is why nobody hesitates over its spelling today.

How the word is built

• on (a single Old English root word, not built from prefix or suffix)