Vocabulary

Question

difference between "just" and "only"

Philip · Accepted Answer

When used to mean "no more than," they are synonymous.

There is a song that was popular in the US some time ago, "We've only just begun...", but I think that was a case of poetic license.

Futurist · Answer

Both words have many senses. Some of these overlap exactly; other senses overlap only partially; some senses do not overlap at all.

'He just made it to the theatre' could mean that he barely made it to the theatre, i.e. he arrived immediately before its doors were about to close. Or, it could mean that he very nearly didn't make it to theatre; perhaps because he got mugged on the way. Or, it could mean that he didn't go anywhere else that night. You'd have to add some context to clarify the meaning, i.e. 'he just made it to the theatre in time,' or 'bleeding profusely, he just made it to theatre before fainting,' or 'he just made it to the theatre, not to the pre-show party.'

By contrast, 'he only made it to the theatre' means he didn't go anywhere else besides to the theatre. The sentence gives no indication as to when he arrived at the theatre; he could have arrived an hour early, just in time for the show to start, or an hour late.

Your question is really quite an involved one. I don't have the inclination to enumerate every sense of each word and how they do and don't overlap (perhaps someone else does). But I can recommend sitting down with a dictionary and carefully comparing the senses of each, or else doing a lot of reading until you come to understand in which contexts each is appropriate. Perhaps you'd like to provide some specific examples from your reading that make you wonder if the alternate word would be appropriate.

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