Loading page
say it: LOHN-lee
lonely is an adjective meaning "lacking companions or companionship". It carries 4 recorded senses.
lacking companions or companionship
“he was alone when we met him”
“she is alone much of the time”
“the lone skier on the mountain”
“a lonely fisherman stood on a tuft of gravel”
“a lonely soul”
“a solitary traveler”
marked by dejection from being alone
“felt sad and lonely”
“the loneliest night of the week”
“lonesome when her husband is away”
“spent a lonesome hour in the bar”
devoid of creatures
“a lonely crossroads”
“a solitary retreat”
“a trail leading to an unfrequented lake”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for lonely come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.