loner

noun

lon·​er ˈlō-nər 

1

: one that avoids others: such as

a

: a person who is often alone or likes to be alone : someone who usually avoids the company of others

He is a moody loner who doesn't become chummy with anyone.

—Sam Moses

Many rowers will agree that sculling is a sport for loners who relish the more quixotic elements of the sport.

—D. C. Churbuck

… she found that the image of the scientist as an antisocial loner is a myth …

—Warren E. Leary

b

: a typically solitary animal

Black bears are loners and usually wander by themselves in search of food.

—Mark Carwardine

Despite the fact they are loners, cats do have a well-organized social system based on scent marks and mutual avoidance.

—Fiona Sunquist

2

: individualist sense 1

Synonyms of loner

• maverick
• bohemian
• individualist
• eccentric

Examples of loner in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This formation process also means that brown dwarfs are cosmic loners, wandering the darkness of space alone, bereft of the light of a parent star. — Robert Lea, Space.com, 19 Oct. 2026

Ryu knows the real truth about Ken but keeps it to himself and has become a loner, a man purposely hiding from his past cooking up a new identity in the food world. — Pete Hammond, Deadline, 15 Oct. 2026

John Wayne and Gary Cooper, like Ken-san, often played anachronistic loners from a disappearing Arcadia that was being destroyed by hard-nosed modernizers—greedy bankers, railway owners, big-city politicians. — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026

Responding to an ad in the newspaper puts Bernie in contact with Comer’s Araminta, a loner whose ultimate dream is to embalm a human body as the crown jewel of her taxidermy collection, which includes all sorts of fauna. — Zachary Lee, IndieWire, 16 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1947, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for loner

• donor
• kroner
• kronor
• owner
• stoner
• toner
• homeowner
• landowner
• shipowner

Kids Definition

loner

noun

lon·​er ˈlō-nər 

: one that avoids others

especially : individualist sense 1