on
Meanings
- In the state of being active, functioning or operating.
- Happening; taking place; being or due to be put into action.
- Of a person, used to express agreement to or acceptance of a proposal or challenge made by that person; most commonly with subject "you" (see you're on).
- Fitted; covering or being worn.
- Of a stated part of something, oriented towards the viewer or other specified direction.
- Acceptable, appropriate.
- Possible; capable of being successfully carried out.
- Available; remaining.
- Having reached a base as a runner and being positioned there, awaiting further action from a subsequent batter.
- Within the half of the field on the same side as the batsman's legs; the left side for a right-handed batsman.
- Of a ball, being the next in sequence to be potted, according to the rules of the game.
- Acting in character.
- To an operating state.
- So as to cover or be fitted.
- Along, forwards (continuing an action), onwards.
- In continuation, at length.
- Later.
- Of betting odds, denoting a better-than-even chance. See also odds-on.
- Of a ball, into a pottable position.
- Indicating position or location.
- Positioned at the upper surface of, touching from above.
- Positioned at or resting against the outer surface of; attached to.
- Covering.
- At or in (a geographical location or position).
- At (a relative spatial position).
- Near; adjacent to; alongside; just off.
- Aboard (a mode of transport, especially public transport, or transport that one sits astride or uses while standing).
- In the direction of (some part of one's vessel), to within 45 degrees.
- Expressing figurative placement, burden, or attachment.
- Denoting physical contact or interaction with an object, such as impact or application of force.
- With verbs describing an action of pushing, pulling, pressing, etc., designates the thing to which force is applied.
- To switch on.
- Without.
- In the Japanese language, a pronunciation, or reading, of a kanji character that was originally based on the character's pronunciation in Chinese, contrasted with kun.
- Initialism of Old Norse.
- Abbreviation of Ontario: a province of Canada.
- Synonym of Heliopolis (“ancient Egyptian city”).
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂en-der. Proto-Germanic *an Proto-West Germanic *ana Old English on Middle English on English on From Middle English on, from Old English on, an (“on, upon, onto, in, into”), from Proto-West Germanic *ana, from Proto-Germanic *ana (“on, at”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂en- (“on, onto”). Cognates Cognate with Yola a, an, ana, on (“on”), Saterland Frisian an (“on; at”), West Frisian oan (“on; to, towards”), Cimbrian aan, å (“on, onto”), Dutch aan (“on; at”), Low German an (“on; at, to”), German an (“at, in; on”), Luxembourgish un (“on; at, to”), Yiddish אָן (on, “on, onward”), Danish, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish å (“on”), Elfdalian ą̊ (“on”), Faroese and Icelandic á (“in; on”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰 (ana, “at, on”); also Umbrian 𐌀𐌌- (am-), 𐌀𐌍- (an-, “up, upon”), Ancient Greek ἀνά (aná, “on, upon”) (whence Greek ανά (aná, “by, through, per”)), Albanian në (“in; on”), Latvian no (“from; out of; for; of; with”), Lithuanian nuo (“from, off; for, of”), Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian на (na, “on”), Czech, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene na (“on”), Serbo-Croatian на, na (“on”), Old Armenian ան- (an-, “at, on, unto”); and from Old Norse upp á: Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Swedish på (“on”), Norwegian Nynorsk paa, på (“on”), see upon.