Lonesome

//ˈləʊnsəm// adj, noun, slang

adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1
Oneself alone. informal
"I sat and watched the cars pass all by my lonesome."

Adjective

1
Unhappy due to being alone; lonely.
"'Where'er the sun shakes out his spears, and the lonesome waters mirror up the moon, where'er storms roll [...] there shall thy power pass and thy dominion find a home.'"

Adjective

1
marked by dejection from being alone wordnet
2
being the only one; single and isolated from others wordnet

Synonyms

lonely solitary abandoned alienated all alone alone

Example

"The child is lonesome for its mother."

Etymology

From lone + -some, mid-17th century.

Related phrases

by one's lonesome high lonesome sound on one's lonesome

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.