only

only
adverb

and no one or nothing more besides; solely or exclusively
唯一地；仅有地；只
there are only a limited number of tickets available.
只剩下数量有限的票了。
only their faith sustained them.
只有他们的信念支撑着他们。
■no more than (implying that more was hoped for or expected); merely
只；仅仅
deaths from heart disease have only declined by 10 per cent.
因心脏病死去的人数仅仅下降了10％。
she was still only in her mid thirties.
她还只有35岁左右。
■no longer ago than
才；刚刚
genes that were discovered only last year.
去年才刚刚发现的基因。
■not until
直到…才
a final report reached him only on January 15.
最后一份报告直到1月15日才到他的手里。
[with infinitive]with the negative or unfortunate result that
不料；结果却
she turned into the car park, only to find her way blocked.
她转到停车场，结果却发现路被堵住了。
■[with modal]inevitably, although unfortunate or undesirable
只会
if banks cancelled the debts, these countries would only borrow more.
如果银行取消他们的债务，这些国家只会借得更多。
rebellion will only bring more unhappiness.
叛乱只会带来更多的痛苦。

adjective

[attrib.]alone of its or their kind; single or solitary
仅有的；惟一的
the only medal we had ever won.
我们赢得的惟一一枚奖章。
he was an only child.
他是独生子。
■alone deserving consideration
唯一值得考虑的
it's simply the only place to be seen these days.
这是这些天惟一值得看的地方。

conjunction

(informal)except that; but for the fact that
(非正式)可是；不过
he is still a young man, only he seems older because of his careworn expression.
他还很年轻，可是沧桑忧郁的表情他显得比实际年龄要老。
■but then
但是
the man was going to be hanged, only he took poison first.
这人会被绞死，但是之前他已经服了毒药。

常用词组
only just

by a very small margin; almost not
仅仅；勉强
the building survived the earthquake, but only just.
这座建筑虽然在经历过地震后没有倒，但也摇摇欲坠仅此而已了。
■very recently
刚刚；刚才
I'd only just arrived back from Paris.
我刚刚从巴黎回来。

only too ——

used to emphasize that something is the case to an extreme or regrettable extent
太，极度；到令人遗憾的地步
you should be only too glad to be rid of him.
你应该非常高兴可以摆脱他了。
they found that the rumour was only too true.
他们发现这个谣言太接近事实了。

语源

Old English ānlic (adjective) (see one, -ly)

用法

The traditional view is that the adverb only should be placed next to the word or words whose meaning it restrictsI have seen him only once rather than I have only seen him onceThe argument for this, a topic which has occupied grammarians for more than 200 years, is that if only is not placed correctly the scope or emphasis is wrong, and could even result in ambiguity. But in normal, everyday English, the impulse is to state only as early as possible in the sentence, generally just before the verb. The result is, in fact, hardly ever ambiguous: few native speakers would be confused by the sentence I have only seen him onceand the supposed ‘logical’ sense often emerges only with further clarification, as in I've only seen him once, but I've heard him many times

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