alone vs only

alone

adj
  • By oneself, solitary. 

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

adv
  • Not requiring anything further; merely. 

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

  • Without outside help. 

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

  • Not permitting anything further; exclusively. 

only

adj
  • Alone in a category. 

  • Singularly superior; the best. 

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

adv
  • As recently as. 

  • Without others or anything further; exclusively. 

  • Used to express surprise or consternation at an action. 

  • Introduces a disappointing or surprising outcome that renders futile something previously mentioned. 

  • No more than; just. 

conj
  • Under the condition that; but. 

  • But; except. 

noun
  • An only child. 

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