Online

How to spell online

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce online

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does online mean?

1. adjectiveConnected to or available through the internet or a computer network.
2. adverbBy means of or while connected to the internet.

Online in a sentence

• adjective

  The bank now offers an online account with no monthly fee.

• adverb

  You can renew your passport online in about ten minutes.

• adjective

  Most of the staff training is delivered through an online course.

• adverb

  He booked the entire holiday online from his phone.

Where does online come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent modern compound of the everyday English preposition 'on' and the noun 'line', both of which trace back to Old English roots: 'on' from the Old English preposition meaning 'upon' or 'in operation', and 'line' from the Latin linea, meaning 'a linen thread or string', which English absorbed and broadened to mean a cord, a wire, and eventually a route of communication. The phrase began in the world of telegraphy and telephony, where a device or person was said to be 'on the line', that is, actively connected to a wire. With the rise of computing in the mid twentieth century it was clipped into the single word 'online' to describe equipment connected to and under the control of a central system, as opposed to 'offline'. The explosion of the internet in the 1990s then carried the word into everyday use for anything accessible through a network. Because both halves are familiar, the only real spelling question is whether to write it as one word, which has become the settled modern form.

How the word is built

• on (in operation, connected)
• line (a wire or communication channel)