1) number + 只 + little animal or insect or bird or hand or foot for example, 一只狗 a dog 两只猫 two cats 三只鸟 three birds four sheeps one hand 一只手 etc 2)只+是 只+有 or 只 means just, only for example, ---I just have three apples, you have eaten them all?(我只有三个苹果，你全吃了？) ---No, I just ate one of them.（没有，我只吃了一个） ---what's wrong with you?(你怎么了？) ---nothing, I am just a little tired.(没什么，我只是有点儿累) 3)alone or little or few (this is a little hard normally we use 只 in this way in some 成语) 只身前往： go somewhere alone eg: he decided to go france alone. 他决定 只身前往 法国 只言片语： a few of words of expressions eg: your message has a few of words, I cant understand what you were talking about. 你的信息 只言片语，我不明白你在说什么。 只字不提： somebody knew about something but he did not talk about it at all. for example: my friend's house burnt yesterday.but when I asked him how he was today, he said he was fine, he did not talk about his burnt house at all! so weird........ 我朋友的房子昨天着火了。但是今天当我问他他怎么样的时候，他说他很好，他 只字未提 他房子着火的事！太奇怪了..........

the character has different tones when the meaning varies in the situation 1 and 3, it should be read "zhi1"(also written as "隻" in traditional Chinese) in situation 2, it is "zhi3".