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Only vs Next - What's the difference?

only | next |

As adjectives the difference between only and next

is that only is alone in a category while next is following in a sequence.

As adverbs the difference between only and next

is that only is without others or anything further; exclusively while next is in a time, place or sequence closest or following.

As nouns the difference between only and next

is that only is (rare) only child while next is the one that follows after this one.

As a conjunction only

is under the condition that; but.

As a determiner next is

the one immediately following the current or most recent one.

As a preposition next is

on the side of; next to.

only

English

Alternative forms

* onely (obsolete)

Adjective

(-)
  • Alone in a category.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author= Nick Miroff
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= 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.}}
  • Singularly Superior; the best.
  • * (William Shakespeare)
  • Motley's the only wear.
  • Without sibling; without a sibling of the same gender.
  • * 1949 , and (Ernestine Gilbreth Carey), (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
  • To DAD ¶ who only reared twelve children ¶ and ¶ To MOTHER ¶ who reared twelve only children
  • (label) Mere.
  • * , I.40:
  • 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, nonpareil

    Derived terms

    * if any * if only * one and only * only child * only game in town * only if

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Without others or anything further; exclusively.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author= Ed Pilkington
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=6, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= ‘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.}}
  • No more than; just.
  • * 1949 , Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, (Cheaper by the Dozen) , dedication:
  • To DAD
    who only reared twelve children
    and
    To MOTHER
    who reared twelve only children
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=20 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.’}}
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= 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.}}
  • As recently as.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= 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).}}
  • (obsolete) Above all others; particularly.
  • * Marston
  • his most only elected mistress

    Derived terms

    * if and only if * only if

    Conjunction

    (English Conjunctions)
  • Under the condition that; but.
  • However.
  • But for the fact that; except.
  • Statistics

    *

    Noun

    (onlies)
  • (rare) only child
  • * 2013 , Sybil L. Hart, ?Maria Legerstee, Handbook of Jealousy
  • 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.

    next

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (dialectal) * (l) (Scotland)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Following in a sequence.
  • Being closer to the present location than all other items.
  • * , chapter=8
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Philander went into the next room, which was just a lean-to hitched on to the end of the shanty, and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.}}
  • Nearest following (of date, time, space or order).
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Out of the gloom , passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.}}
  • (figuratively) Following in a hypothetical sequence of some kind.
  • *
  • Antonyms

    * previous * (closest to seven days ahead) last, this

    Determiner

    (en determiner)
  • The one immediately following the current or most recent one
  • Next week would be a good time to meet.
    I'll know better next time.
  • Closest to seven days (one week) in the future.
  • The party is next Tuesday; that is, not this Tuesday, but nine days from now.

    Adverb

    (-)
  • In a time, place or sequence closest or following.
  • They live in the next closest house.
    It's the next best thing to ice cream.
    Next , we stripped off the old paint.
  • On the first subsequent occasion,
  • Financial panic, earthquakes, oil spills, riots. What comes next ?
    When we next meet, you'll be married.

    Antonyms

    * previously

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • On the side of; next to.
  • * 1900 , The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices , translated by Walter Leaf (London, Macmillan), notes on line 558 of book 2:
  • The fact that the line cannot be original is patent from the fact that Aias in the rest of the Iliad is not encamped next the Athenians .

    Noun

    (-)
  • The one that follows after this one.
  • ''Next , please, don't hold up the queue!