Standalone

How to spell standalone

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce standalone

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does standalone mean?

1. adjectiveAble to operate or exist independently, without needing to be connected to or part of something larger.

Standalone in a sentence

• The software runs as a standalone application that needs no internet connection.

• They sold the garage as a standalone unit separate from the main house.

Where does standalone come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent modern English compound, formed simply by joining the native verb 'stand' to the adverb 'alone'. Both halves descend from Old English: 'standan' meant 'to take or hold an upright position', while 'alone' began life as the two-word phrase 'all one', meaning 'wholly by oneself', which over centuries fused into a single word. The compound itself is recent, emerging in the twentieth century, first in engineering and then booming with the rise of computing in the 1960s and 1970s to describe a device or program that operates without needing to be connected to anything else. The spelling trap is purely about word boundaries: because it is built from two ordinary words, writers hesitate between 'stand alone', 'stand-alone', and the closed 'standalone'. The closed form has become standard for the adjective, even though the two-word verb phrase 'to stand alone' is still written separately.

How the word is built

• stand (to remain upright, be self-supporting)
• alone (by itself, on its own)