Word.ws English Dictionary

Solent

/ˈsəʊlənt/

Solent proper noun: a strait separating Hampshire from the Isle of Wight in southern England.

Proper noun

the Solent

  1. A strait separating Hampshire from the Isle of Wight in southern England.
    • One, two, three Victorian military forts in the Solent—an early indication they have a thing about foreign invasion down here.2019, Isabel Waidner, We Are Made of Diamond Stuff, Dostoyevsky Wannabe Originals, page 13

Origin of Solent

From Old English Sol(u)ente, a pre-English name of obscure origin. The second element is seemingly Proto-Indo-European *auent- (“to wet, to spring”).

Words formed from Solent

Phrases with Solent

Questions about Solent

What does Solent mean?
Solent means a strait separating Hampshire from the Isle of Wight in southern England.
What part of speech is Solent?
Solent is a proper noun.
How do you pronounce Solent?
Solent is pronounced /ˈsəʊlənt/.

Words near Solent in the dictionary

  1. solenostome
  2. solenostomes
  3. solenostomid
  4. solenostomids
  5. solens
  6. Solent
  7. Solent geese
  8. Solent goose
  9. solepiece
  10. solepieces
  11. soleplate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Solent (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Solent.wav.

Cite this entry: “Solent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/solent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.