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only

adverb · adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Without any others being included or involved.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

ohnlee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈoʊnli

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adverb

  1. Without any others being included or involved

  2. Without others or anything further; exclusively.

  3. No more than; just.

  4. And nothing more

  5. Introduces a disappointing or surprising outcome that renders futile something previously mentioned.

  6. In the final outcome

    “These news will only make you more upset.”

adjective

  1. Without sibling; without a sibling of the same gender.

  2. Alone in a category.

  3. Singularly superior; the best.

noun

  1. An only child.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Without any others being included or involved

Used this way, only is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use only

  • “These news will only make you more upset.”adverb
  • “He arrived only to find his wife dead.”adverb
  • “Call me only if your cold gets worse.”adverb

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • only ifadverbCompound term

    Never except when.

  • only tooadverbCompound term

    To a high degree.

  • only whenadverbCompound term

    Never except when.

  • in name onlyadverbCompound term

    By title or repute though not in fact.

  • read-only filenounCompound term

    A file that you can read but cannot change.

  • read-only memorynounCompound term

    Memory whose contents can be accessed and read but cannot be changed.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.