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 was a real loner," said a neighbor who spoke to AFP anonymously over fears of repercussions.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
For the wistful, lovelorn loner, it’s an imperative reminder that being attached at the hip can still be isolating, no matter how much two people think alike.
From Salon ● Sep. 28, 2026
What if the destruction of your planet left you with a permanent case of agonized alienation, and you became a weird, antisocial loner who hung out in bars drinking alone?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
By this point, police say his family had no idea where his thinking was leading, as he became a loner who had largely withdrawn from his parents and sibling.
From BBC ● May 1, 2026
I became a loner; I could not eat; I could not sleep; my schoolwork suffered; and I seldom went out to play as I used to.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
She has a knack for heightening moments and introducing characters that range from sad, weird loners to shifty and overconfident schemers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 7, 2025
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
In Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” my favorite film of 2023, a pair of loners find nourishing points of connection in a cruel and grim world: the movies, karaoke and a dog named Chaplin.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
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
People like Nicole Castro didn’t know loners like me.
From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
