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According to Duden and also answers to this question, "alleine" is just a colloquial form of "allein". Which makes the line in the title very confusing to me, because while I understand that the intended meaning is (probably) "alone but not lonely", I have never before seen such a phrase to contrast a word with itself.

Is it correct to contrast different meanings of the same word like this?

PiedPiper
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Michail
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  • Note: I'm not really sure what tags to put here, please add more appropriate ones or tell me to. – Michail Jan 19 '19 at 17:25

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Contrasting a word with itself is certainly possible if the word conveys multiple different meanings

Kein Zug mehr im Zug. – Bahn schafft Raucherabteile ab.

Dieser Schlag (physisch) war kein Schlag (metaphorisch).

Es ist immer ein Kreuz (metaphorisch) mit dem Kreuz (Körperteil).

The word allein or alleine has at least the meanings einsam and einzeln. People feeling alone in groups of other people isn't a seldom thing to happen.

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Janka
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  • "Zug" must be a fun word in this regard. I will wait until tomorrow morning to give other people time to chime in, and then accept an answer. – Michail Jan 19 '19 at 18:07
  • "Allein ist man am besten zu zweit!" – LаngLаngС Jan 19 '19 at 22:45
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    @ Michail No, that "Zug" is not "a fun word". The first one means 'a drag' [of a cigarette], the second one 'train'. Whereas Janka's metaphorical 'Schlag' is quite enigmatic. What she probably meant to convey was 'Unglück, das jemanden getroffen hat; niederdrückendes, unglückseliges Ereignis' – multiplex et liber Jan 20 '19 at 07:40
  • @multiplexetliber I meant that with the number of meanings it has there're so many opportunities for such usage. I did not mean that it's translated as 'fun word' in this context. (btw, you put a space between '@' and the username, so I didn't get the notification) – Michail Jan 20 '19 at 10:47
  • @Michail - Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa :-)) But never shall this happen again. Hopefully! :-)) – multiplex et liber Jan 21 '19 at 17:25