Only vs Still - What's the difference?
only | still |
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
Not moving; calm.
Not effervescing; not sparkling.
Uttering no sound; silent.
* Addison
(not comparable) Having the same stated quality continuously from a past time
* {{quote-news, 2007, January 3, Gerry Geronimo, Unwanted weed starts to sprout from a wayward ponencia, Manila Standard
, passage=To follow the still President’s marching orders, all that Secretary Ronnie Puno has to do is to follow the road map laid out by Justice Azcuna in his “separate” opinion. }}
Comparatively quiet or silent; soft; gentle; low.
* Bible, 1 Kings xix. 12
(obsolete) Constant; continual.
* Shakespeare
(aspect) Up to a time, as in the preceding time.
* Francis Bacon
* , chapter=15
, title= *
* {{quote-magazine, title=A better waterworks, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
, page=5 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist)
(degree) To an even greater degree.
* Shakespeare
(conjunctive) Nevertheless.
* Moore
(archaic, poetic) Always; invariably; constantly; continuously.
* 1609 (William Shakespeare), Troilus and Cressida 5.2.201-202:
* Addison
* Boyle
(extensive) .
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, title= A period of calm or silence.
(photography) A non-moving photograph. (The term is generally used only when it is necessary to distinguish from movies.)
(slang) A resident of the Falkland Islands.
A steep hill or ascent.
a device for distilling liquids.
(catering) a large water boiler used to make tea and coffee.
(catering) the area in a restaurant used to make tea and coffee, separate from the main kitchen.
A building where liquors are distilled; a distillery.
to calm down, to quiet
* Woodward
* Shakespeare
* Hawthorne
(obsolete) To trickle, drip.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.ii:
To cause to fall by drops.
To expel spirit from by heat, or to evaporate and condense in a refrigeratory; to distill.
As nouns the difference between only and still
is that only is (rare) only child while still is .As an adjective only
is alone in a category.As an adverb only
is without others or anything further; exclusively.As a conjunction only
is under the condition that; but.only
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.
still
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . Related to (l).Alternative forms
* (l) * (l), (l), (l) (obsolete)Adjective
(en-adj)- Still waters run deep.
- still''' water; '''still wines
- The sea that roared at thy command, / At thy command was still .
citation
- a still small voice
- By still practice learn to know thy meaning.
Synonyms
* (not moving) fixed, stationary, unmoving * See alsoDerived terms
* stillnessAdverb
(-)- It hath been anciently reported, and is still received.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
- Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
citation, passage=An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.}}
- ("still" and "taller" can easily swap places here)
- The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed.
- As sunshine, broken in the rill, / Though turned astray, is sunshine still .
- Lechery, lechery, still wars and lechery; nothing else holds fashion.
- The desire of fame betrays an ambitious man into indecencies that lessen his reputation; he is still afraid lest any of his actions should be thrown away in private.
- Chemists would be rich if they could still do in great quantities what they have sometimes done in little.
Sarah Glaz
Ode to Prime Numbers, volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
Synonyms
* (up to a time) yet * (to an even greater degree) yet, even * (nevertheless) nonetheless, though, yetNoun
(en noun)- the still of the night
Etymology 2
Via (etyl), ultimately from (etyl) stillaNoun
(en noun) (wikipedia still)See also
* pot stillEtymology 3
(etyl) stillanVerb
(en verb)- to still the raging sea
- He having a full sway over the water, had power to still and compose it, as well as to move and disturb it.
- With his name the mothers still their babies.
- toil that would, at least, have stilled an unquiet impulse in me
Etymology 4
Aphetic form of distil, or from (etyl) (lena) stillare.Verb
(en verb)- any drop of slombring rest / Did chaunce to still into her wearie spright [...].
- (Tusser)