Except vs Only - What's the difference?
except | only |
To exclude; to specify as being an exception.
* 2007 , Glen Bowersock, ‘Provocateur’, London Review of Books 29:4, page 17:
To take exception, to object (to' or ' against ).
* Shakespeare
*, vol.1, New York Review Books 2001, p.312:
* 1658 , Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial , Penguin 2005, page 23:
* 1749 , Henry Fielding, Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, page 96:
With the exception of; but.
*{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= With the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated.
:
*
*:"I don't want to spoil any comparison you are going to make," said Jim, "but I was at Winchester and New College." ¶ "That will do," said Mackenzie. "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal.."
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=2 (lb) Unless; used to introduce a hypothetical case in which an exception may exist.
*1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , (w) IX:
*:And they sayde: We have no moo but five loves and two fisshes, except we shulde goo and bye meate for all this people.
*1621 , (Robert Burton), (The Anatomy of Melancholy) , New York 2001, p.106:
*:Offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of.
Alone in a category.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=
, volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= Singularly Superior; the best.
* (William Shakespeare)
Without sibling; without a sibling of the same gender.
* 1949 , and (Ernestine Gilbreth Carey), (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
(label) Mere.
* , I.40:
Without others or anything further; exclusively.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=
, volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= No more than; just.
* 1949 , Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=20 * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= As recently as.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (obsolete) Above all others; particularly.
* Marston
Under the condition that; but.
However.
But for the fact that; except.
(rare) only child
* 2013 , Sybil L. Hart, ?Maria Legerstee, Handbook of Jealousy
Only is a conjunction of except.
As conjunctions the difference between except and only
is that except is with the exception (that); used to introduce a clause, phrase or adverb forming an exception or qualification to something previously stated while only is under the condition that; but.As a verb except
is to exclude; to specify as being an exception.As a preposition except
is with the exception of; but.As an adjective only is
alone in a category.As an adverb only is
without others or anything further; exclusively.As a noun only is
only child.except
English
Alternative forms
* excepte (rare or archaic)Verb
(en verb)- But this [ban on circumcision] must have been a provocation, as the emperor Antoninus Pius later acknowledged by excepting the Jews.
- to except to a witness or his testimony
- Except thou wilt except against my love.
- Yea, but methinks I hear some man except at these words […].
- The Athenians'' might fairly except against the practise of ''Democritus to be buried up in honey; as fearing to embezzle a great commodity of their Countrey
- he was a great lover of music, and perhaps, had he lived in town, might have passed for a connoisseur; for he always excepted against the finest compositions of Mr Handel.
Preposition
(English prepositions)It's a gas, passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.}}
Synonyms
* apart from * bar * but * other than * saveDerived terms
* except for * except for opinionConjunction
(English Conjunctions)citation, passage=Mother
Quotations
* (English Citations of "except")Statistics
*Anagrams
* 1000 English basic wordsonly
English
Alternative forms
* onely (obsolete)Adjective
(-)Nick Miroff
Mexico gets a taste for eating insects, passage=The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters such as ostrich, wild boar and crocodile. Only the city zoo offers greater species diversity.}}
- Motley's the only wear.
- To DAD ¶ who only reared twelve children ¶ and ¶ To MOTHER ¶ who reared twelve only children
- I know some who wittingly have drawne both profit and preferment from cuckoldrie, the only name whereof is so yrksome and bail-ful to so many men.
Synonyms
* (alone in a category) sole, lone * (singularly superior) peerless, unequaled, nonpareilDerived terms
* if any * if only * one and only * only child * only game in town * only ifAdverb
(-)Ed Pilkington
‘Killer robots’ should be banned in advance, UN told, passage=In his submission to the UN, [Christof] Heyns points to the experience of drones. Unmanned aerial vehicles were intended initially only for surveillance, and their use for offensive purposes was prohibited, yet once strategists realised their perceived advantages as a means of carrying out targeted killings, all objections were swept out of the way.}}
- To DAD
- who only reared twelve children
- and
- To MOTHER
- who reared twelve only children
citation, passage=‘No. I only opened the door a foot and put my head in. The street lamps shine into that room. I could see him. He was all right. Sleeping like a great grampus. Poor, poor chap.’}}
Engineers of a different kind, passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
Yesterday’s fuel, passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}
- his most only elected mistress
Derived terms
* if and only if * only ifConjunction
(English Conjunctions)Statistics
*Noun
(onlies)- The consistent finding that infants who are onlies do not differ from those who have siblings despite their lesser history of exposure to differential treatment is perplexing.