Meaning

(frequency) One and only one time..

Definitions by Sense

1. (frequency) One and only one time.
2. (temporal location) Formerly; during some period in the past.
3. (chiefly obsolete) At any time; ever.
4. (obsolete) One day, someday.
5. (mathematics) Multiplied by one: indicating that a number is multiplied by one.
6. As soon as; when; after.
7. Obsolete form of ounce.

Example Sentences

I have only once eaten pizza.

He was once the most handsome man around.

I once had a motorbicycle.

Once I didn't drive a big car, but now I own an all-terrain 4WD.

Wang notes that flowers have rooted and grow in the area once covered with ice.

Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.

The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common.

Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.

Word Forms

• onces

Synonyms for once

Antonyms for once

Related Words

When Should You Use Once?

Use once when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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