only

English

Alternative forms

• onely (obsolete)

Etymology

Old English ǣnlīċ, from Germanic; corresponding to one + -ly/-like. Cognate with Swedish enlig (“unified”), and obsolete Dutch eenlijk.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈəʊn.li/, X-SAMPA: /"@Un.li/
• (US) IPA: /ˈoʊn.li/, X-SAMPA: /"oUn.li/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: on‧ly

Adjective

only (not comparable)

1. Alone in a category.

   He is the only doctor for miles.

   The only people in the stadium were the fans: no players, coaches, or officials.

2. Singularly superior; the best.

   He is the only trombonist to recruit.

   • Shakespeare

     Motley's the only wear.

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

   He is their only son, in fact, an only child

4. (obsolete) Mere.
   • 1603, John Florio, trans. Michel de Montaigne, Essays, I.40:

     I know some who wittingly have drawne both profit and preferment from cuckoldrie, the only name whereof is so yrksome and bail-ful to so many men.

Synonyms

• (alone in a category): sole, lone
• (singularly superior): peerless, unequaled, nonpareil

Derived terms

• if any
• if only
• one and only
• only child
• only if

Translations

alone in a category

• Armenian: միակ (hy) (miak)
• Bulgarian: единствен (bg) (edinstven)
• Catalan: únic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 唯一 (cmn) (wéiyī)

• Czech: jediný (cs)
• Danish: eneste (da)
• Dutch: enig (nl)
• Esperanto: sola (eo), nura (eo)
• Estonian: ainus (et)
• Finnish: ainoa (fi), ainut (fi)
• French: unique (fr), seul (fr)

  Middle French: unicque

• Georgian: ერთადერთი (ert‘adert‘i)
• German: einzig (de)
• Greek: μοναδικός (monadikós) m, μοναδική (monadikí) f, μοναδικό (monadikó) n, μόνος (mónos) m, μόνη (móni) f, μόνο (móno) n
• Hebrew: יָחִיד (he) (yakhíd)
• Hungarian: egyetlen (hu)
• Ido: nura
• Italian: unico (it)
• Japanese: 唯一の (ja) (ゆいいつの, yuiïtsu-no)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ته‌نها (ku) (tanhA)

• Latin: unicus (la)
• Latvian: vienīgs (lv)
• Malayalam: മാത്രം (maathram)
• Marathi: फ़क्त (mr) (fakta)
• Nahuatl: ça, çan
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: eneste (no)

  Nynorsk:einaste (no)

• Persian: تَنها (fa) (tanhâ)
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: uni
• Polish: jedyny (pl)
• Portuguese: único (pt)
• Romanian: singur (ro), unic (ro)
• Russian: единственный (ru) (jedínstvennyj) m, единый (ru) (jedínyj) m
• Santali: ᱮᱠᱚ (eka)
• Slovak: jediný (sk) m
• Slovene: edin
• Spanish: único (es)
• Swedish: enda (sv)
• Tamil: ஒரே (ore)
• Telugu: ఏకైక, ఒకే, ఒక్కగానొక్క
• Turkish: sadece (tr), tek (tr)
• Ukrainian: єдиний (uk) (jedynyj)

without sibling

• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: únic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 唯一的 (cmn) (wéiyī de), 独生的 (cmn) (dúshēng de)

• Czech: jedináček (cs) m
• Finnish: ainoa (fi)
• French: unique (fr)

• German: geschwisterlos (de), Einzelkind (de) n (noun)
• Italian: please add this translation if you can
• Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: filho (pt) único (pt)
• Russian: единственный (ru) (jedínstvennyj) m
• Spanish: único (es), hijo único (es) m (noun)
• Turkish: tek (tr)

singularly superior; the best

• Catalan: únic (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 独一无二的 (cmn) (dúyīwú'èr de), 最好的 (cmn) (zuìhǎo de)

• Finnish: ainutlaatuinen (fi)
• German: einzigartig (de)

• Persian: تنها (fa) (tanhâ)
• Polish: jedyny (pl), najlepszy (pl)
• Portuguese: único (pt), melhor (pt)
• Spanish: único (es)

Adverb

only (not comparable)

1. without others or anything further; exclusively

   my heart is hers, and hers only

2. no more than; just

   if there were only one more ticket!

3. as recently as

   he left only moments ago

Derived terms

• if and only if
• only if

Translations

exclusively

• Arabic: فقط (ar) (fáqaT)
• Bulgarian: само (bg) (sámo), единствено (bg) (edínstveno)
• Catalan: només (ca), sols (ca), solament (ca), únicament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 只有 (cmn) (zhǐyǒu), 惟獨 (cmn), 惟独 (cmn) (wéidú)

• Czech: jen (cs), jenom (cs), pouze (cs)
• Dutch: alleen
• Finnish: vain (fi), ainoastaan (fi)
• French: seulement (fr), ne...que (fr), uniquement (fr)

  Middle French: unicquement

• Galician: só (gl)
• German: nur (de)
• Greek: μόνο (el) (móno)
• Hebrew: רק (he)
• Hindi: सिर्फ़ (hi) (sirf), ही (hi) (hī)
• Hungarian: csak (hu)
• Interlingua: solmente (ia)
• Italian: solo (it), solamente (it)

• Japanese: ...だけ (ja) (...dake)
• Latvian: tikai (lv), vienīgi (lv)
• Lojban: po'o (jbo)
• Malay: hanya (ms), sahaja (ms)
• Norwegian: bare (no)
• Old Provençal: solament
• Persian: فقط (fa) (faqat)
• Pipil: sema, cema, semaya, cemaya
• Polish: tylko
• Portuguese: apenas (pt), somente (pt)
• Romanian: numai (ro)
• Russian: только (ru) (tól’ko), лишь (ru) (liš)
• Spanish: sólo (es), solamente (es)
• Turkish: sadece (tr), yalnızca (tr), bir tek (tr)
• Urdu: صرف (ur) (sirf)

no more than

• Arabic: فقط (ar) (fáqaT)
• Bulgarian: само (bg) (sámo)
• Burmese: ရုံ (my) (yon)
• Catalan: només (ca), sols (ca), solament (ca), únicament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 只有 (cmn) (zhǐyǒu)

• Czech: jen (cs)
• Dutch: maar slechts
• Finnish: edes (fi), vain (fi)
• French: que (fr), seulement (fr)
• German: nur (de)
• Greek: μόνο (el) (móno)
• Hebrew: רק (he)
• Hindi: सिर्फ़ (hi) (sirf)
• Italian: solamente (it)

• Japanese: ...だけ (ja) (...dake), (negative clause, meaning is positive) ...しか (ja) (...shika)
• Latin: sōlum (la)
• Malay: hanya (ms), sahaja (ms)
• Persian: فقط (fa) (faqat)
• Polish: tylko
• Portuguese: apenas (pt), somente (pt)
• Romanian: numai (ro)
• Russian: только (ru) (tól’ko)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: само (sh)

  Roman: sámo (sh)

• Spanish: solo (es), únicamente (es), solamente (es)
• Turkish: sadece (tr), yalnızca (tr)
• Urdu: صرف (ur) (sirf)
• Volapük: te (vo)

as recently as

• Catalan: només (ca), sols (ca), solament (ca), únicament (ca)
• Czech: až (cs), teprve (cs)
• Dutch: pas (nl), net (nl)
• Finnish: vasta (fi), juuri (fi), vain (fi)
• German: gerade (de)
• Malay: hanya (ms), sahaja (ms)

• Polish: dopiero (pl)
• Portuguese: apenas (pt), somente (pt)
• Russian: только (ru) (tól’ko), всего (ru) (vsevó)
• Spanish: apenas (es), solo (es)
• Turkish: sadece (tr), yalnızca (tr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Arabic: فقط (faqaṭ)
• Armenian: միայն (hy) (miayn)
• Bulgarian: само (bg) (samo)
• Mandarin: 只有 (zhǐyǒu), 唯一的 (wéiyī de), 仅有的 (jǐnyǒu de)
• Danish: kun (da), bare (da)
• Esperanto: nur (eo)
• Estonian: ainult, üksnes
• Georgian: მხოლოდ (ka) (mxolod)
• German: einzig (de), nur (de)
• Hebrew: רַק (he) (rak)
• Hungarian: csak (hu), kizárólag (hu)
• Ido: nur
• Italian: solo (it), solamente (it)
• Japanese: ただひとつ (tada hitotsu), 唯一の (ゆいいつの, yuiitsu no), ...だけ (...dake), のみ (nomi)
• Khmer: គ្រាន់តែ (krōən dtai)

• Korean: 유일한 (yuilhan)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: هه‌ر (ku) (har)

• Latin: sōlum (la)
• Lithuanian: tik (lt)
• Mongolian: ганц (mn) (ganc)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bare (no), kun (no), utelukkende (no)

  Nynorsk:berre (no), einast (no), einaste (no)

• Persian: هَمین (hamin)
• Romanian: numai (ro)
• Slovene: samo (sl)
• Swedish: bara (sv), endast (sv)
• Thai: เอง (eng), แค่นี้ (kâe née)
• Turkish: sade (tr), sadece (tr)
• Ukrainian: тільки (til’ky)
• Vietnamese: chỉ (vi), chỉ thôi (vi)

Conjunction

only

1. Under the condition that; but.
2. However.

   I would enjoy running, only I have this broken leg

3. But for the fact that; except.

Translations

but

• Finnish: jos (fi), sillä ehdolla, että (fi)
• Greek: αλλά (el) (allá)

• Portuguese: mas (pt), porém (pt), todavia (pt)
• Russian: но (ru) (no)

however

• Czech: jenže (cs)
• Finnish: mutta (fi)
• French: mais (fr)

• Portuguese: mas (pt), porém (pt), todavia (pt)
• Russian: только вот (ru) (tól'ko vot), но (ru) (no), однако (ru) (odnáko)

except

• Finnish: mutta (fi), paitsi että (fi)
• French: sauf que (fr)

• Portuguese: salvo (pt) que (pt), exceto (pt) que (pt)
• Russian: за исключением того, что (ru) (za isključénijem tovó, što)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Catalan: però
• Dutch: maar (nl)
• Estonian: ainult (et)
• Georgian: მაგრამ არამედ (magram aramed)
• German: aber (de), doch (de)

• Hungarian: csak (hu)
• Italian: ma (it)
• Norwegian: men (no), bare at (no)
• Spanish: pero (es), ojalá (es)

Related terms

• if only

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: about · its · time · #74: only · like · little · now

Anagrams

• Lyon
• ynol