adv. 只，仅仅；不料
adj. 唯一的，仅有的；最合适的
conj. 但是；不过；可是
英 ['əʊnlɪ] 美 ['onli]
权威例句
- His house was the only settled home I had as a child.
他的房子是我儿时唯一固定的家。
来自柯林斯例句 - The arteries are diseased and a transplant is the only hope.
动脉已经发生病变，移植是唯一的希望。
来自柯林斯例句 - The crowd in Robinson's Coffee-House was thinning, but only by degrees.
鲁宾逊咖啡屋里的人正在变少，但也只是渐少而已。
来自柯林斯例句 - They have only a vague idea of the amount of water available.
他们只是大概知道可用水的总量。
来自柯林斯例句 - We were in the same college, which was male-only at that time.
我们那时在同一所学院，当时只招男生。
来自柯林斯例句
中文词源
only 唯一的
来自one,一，-ly,形容词后缀。即一次性的。
英文词源
only
**only: **[OE] _Only _is a compound formed in the Old English period from ān, ancestor of modern English one, and -_lic _‘-ly’. It originally meant ‘solitary’ as well as ‘unique’, but this sense has been taken over by the related lonely. _Only _preserves the early diphthongal pronunciation which its source _one _has lost.
=> lonely, one
only (adj.)
Old English ænlic, anlic "only, unique, solitary," literally "one-like," from an "one" (see one) + -lic "-like" (see -ly (1)). Use as an adverb and conjunction developed in Middle English. Distinction of only and alone (now usually in reference to emotional states) is unusual; in many languages the same word serves for both. German also has a distinction in allein/einzig. Phrase only-begotten (mid-15c.) is biblical, translating Latin unigenitus, Greek monogenes. The Old English form was ancenned.
