alone vs by oneself

alone

adv
  • Without outside help. 

  • Not requiring anything further; merely. 

  • By oneself; apart from, or exclusive of, others; solo. 

  • Used to emphasize the size or extent of something by selecting a subset. 

  • Not permitting anything further; exclusively. 

adj
  • By oneself, solitary. 

  • Lacking peers who share one's beliefs, experiences, practices, etc. 

by oneself

adv
  • without outside assistance 

prep
  • Alone; without assistance or help from others. 

  • Alone, without another's immediate company 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see by, oneself. 

How often have the words alone and by oneself occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )