One of only five

Question

Here's a paragraph cite from a magazine:

"... When we found out that our proposal was one of only five that had been accepted, it felt like God had stepped in to help us start our business."

My question is, is the sentence "one of only five"'s grammar correct?

Shouldn't it be"one of the only five" or something like this?

Answer 1

This painting is one of three the artist painted of his mother.

The artist painted three paintings of his mother. This painting is one of them.

This painting is one of only three the artist painted of his mother.

The artist painted only three paintings of his mother. (The speaker thinks three paintings of his mother is a small number of paintings, small enough to be mentioned as a fact in its own right.) This painting is one of them.

This painting is one of the three the artist painted of his mother.

The artist painted three paintings of his mother. (The speaker is referring to that trio of paintings as if the listener is already aware there was a trio of paintings, or to introduce the fact that there was a trio, possibly because the speaker intends to discuss all three.) This painting is one of them.

This painting is one of the only three the artist painted of his mother.

Same as immediately above, in terms of the assumption that the listener is aware of the three, or to introduce the fact that there were three, coupled with the idea that three is a small number.

P.S. This last version, "one of the only three", strikes my ear as odd, but it is well attested.

Answer 2

Yes, "one of only five" is grammatically correct. So is "one of the only five". The word "only" can be an adverb or an adjective, depending on what it modifies.

We use only as an adjective to mean that there is just one or very few of something, or that there are no others:

• He was the only person in the room.

We use only as an adverb to mean that something is limited to some people, things, an amount or an activity:

• Only a few hundred houses survived the hurricane without any damage.

- Cambridge Dictionary

Whether the is present or absent, your sentence has the sense that

• many proposals were submitted;
• you submitted one proposal;
• five proposals were accepted; and
• yours was one of the five proposals that were accepted.

The question that remains relates to the difference between

1. one of only five that were accepted; and
2. one of the only five that were accepted.

In both cases, only is used to indicate that there are very few of something, so both use only as an adjective. There is only a nuanced difference between the two cases.

In #1, the emphasis is that your proposal was one of very few that were accepted.
In #2, the emphasis is that yours was within the set that was accepted.