only
/ˈəʊnli
/- She says they have only met once since, to try to sort out the divorce arrangements.
- In two of the cases, he had never met them and in the other had met the girl only once.
- This is just their sixth ever meeting and only once has a match consisted of less then three goals.
Synonyms
- We are a small special school and a decline in only a small number of children can affect the budget.
- Until the 1930s, the life expectancy of a baby with the disease was only a few months.
- As a group, the San have declined in numbers and only a very few now live in the Kalahari.
- This was discovered only a fortnight ago by Milngavie Primary School near Glasgow.
- The museum itself is built right on the site of a Viking settlement, discovered only a few years ago.
- Wei Hui only discovered this when she phoned her publisher to discuss royalties.
- However, Heather discovered the present only a couple of days later and unwrapped it.
- Megson and his advisers only discovered Imerman was involved at the eleventh hour.
- The team spent all this time exploring new avenues, only to arrive back at their starting point.
- It was a similar story at St Aidan's where parents arrived at the cordon only to be turned away.
- We all rushed for the boat when it arrived only to be told it was going round the lake.
- Further delay would only prolong the agony of dozens of families and can have no justification.
- Continuing to falsely condemn Israel in knee jerk fashion will only hasten that outcome.
- If the real problem is not addressed, then the plaster will only hide the rot.
- It's always a good sign when you can recognise almost every single track from only one repeat.
- This is not only the best single book on the subject but a model of how military history ought to be written.
- The only reason animals are allowed to travel so far to slaughter is financial.
Synonyms
- There will be many who consider that the only fitting punishment for them would be a custodial one.
- When trying to consider the medium as an artistic one it's really the only factor to be considered.
- For many years, women considered showing cleavage to be the only way to look sexy.
Usage
The traditional view is that the adverb only should be placed next to the word or words whose meaning it restricts: I have seen him only once rather than I have only seen him once. The argument for this, a topic which has occupied grammarians for more than 200 years, is that if only is not placed correctly the scope or emphasis is wrong, and could even result in ambiguity. But in normal, everyday English, the impulse is to state only as early as possible in the sentence, generally just before the verb. The result is, in fact, hardly ever ambiguous: few native speakers would be confused by the sentence I have only seen him once, and the supposed ‘logical’ sense often emerges only with further clarification, as in I’ve only seen him once, but I’ve heard him many times.
Phrases
only just
only too ——
Origin
Old English ānlic (adjective) (see one, -ly1).