loner
Americannoun
-
loners
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of loner
Explanation
A loner is someone who prefers being alone to spending time with other people. If you're a loner, you'd rather take a walk in the woods by yourself than go to a party. An extreme kind of loner is a hermit, a person who lives far from society, completely alone, and doesn't interact with anyone. Other loners are simply introverts, people who often need a break from socializing and enjoy spending time on their own. Loner seems to have appeared in the 1940s, originally in "Life" magazine's description of baseball player Ted Williams as "something of a loner (who) refuses to pal around with his teammates."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He’s a loner who spends his days monitoring crime from his high-tech redoubt.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” takes the series’ thematic underpinnings — what parenting looks like between a masked human loner and an otherworldly toddler — and deepens them.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026
As a result, unlike what his name would suggest, Unique is a fairly generic loner who dully seeks vengeance.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
It tells the story of a lonely woman who uses a magical spray to improve her life and finds romance with a fellow loner.
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
Like most hamsters, I’m pretty much of a loner, so I really hadn’t thought about it before.
From "The World According to Humphrey" by Betty G. Birney
Following the attacks, Sir Keir Starmer said Britain faced a new threat from "extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms".
From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2025
Ecologists had long assumed snakes are antisocial loners that hang out together only for core functions such as mating and hibernation.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 15, 2023
All three feature stereotypical bookworms — quiet loners who enjoy walking the streets of their city.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2023
There were three groups of at least three wolves each, and a few loners or pairs.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 14, 2023
R-and-W had all of these, and the worst cases were loners, shunned by the mass of inmates.
From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
