solitary

UK/ˈsɒlɪt(ə)ɹi//ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/

solitary noun: one who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchorite, hermit or recluse. Also the ellipsis of solitary confinement.

Noun

solitary (countable and uncountable, plural solitaries)

(countable) One who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchorite, hermit or recluse.
- He brooded and intrigued fantastically. He was becoming one of the big-time solitaries. And he wasn't meant to be a solitary. He was meant to be in active life, a social creature.1976 September, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN, page 24
Synonyms:

aloner, anchoret, anchorite, eremite, hermit, Miller of Dee, monk, recluse, shut-in, sullen
(uncountable) The state of being solitary; solitude
- You must wonder why I'm relentless and all strung out/I'm consumed by the chill of solitary1995, Alanis Morissette, “All I Really Want”, in Jagged Little Pill

Adjective

solitary (not comparable)

Living or being by oneself; alone; having no companion present
- The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020, page 55
- Though we don’t all reach nirvana when we swim, swimming may well be that last refuge from connectivity — and, for some, the only way to find the solitary self.2014 February 14, Bonnie Tsui, “The Self-Reflecting Pool”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 15 Aug 2021
Synonyms:

by oneself, on one's own, seclusive
Performed, passed, or endured alone.
- a solitary journey
- a solitary life
Synonyms:

solo
Not much visited or frequented; remote from society
- a solitary residence or place
Synonyms:

deavely, lonely, unfrequented, unvisited
Not inhabited or occupied; without signs of inhabitants or occupation; desolate; deserted
- the solitary desert
- How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!1769, Bible (King James Version), Lamentations 1.1
Synonyms:

peopleless, wasteful, beingless, desert, deserted, howling, desolate, disinhabited, inhabitantless, inhabited
Gloomy; dismal, because of not being inhabited.

Synonyms:

desolate, bleak, cheerless, comfortless, dark, morose, depressing, dire, disconsolate, dismal
Single; individual; sole.
- a solitary example
- On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which...1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668
Synonyms:

lone, singular, individual, first and last, one, one and only, only, single, sole, unitary
Not associated with others of the same kind.

Also used as

solitary is also the ellipsis of solitary confinement.

solitary is also the archaic form of solitaire.

solitary meaning in Malayalam, Indonesian, Persian and Thai

solitary in Malayalam

living alone or being by oneself: ഏകാന്ത ēkānta
performed, passed, or endured alone: ഏകാന്ത ēkānta

solitary in Persian

one who lives alone: انفرادی enferâdi
performed, passed, or endured alone: انفرادی enferâdi

solitary in Thai

living alone or being by oneself: สันโดษ, ลำพัง lam-pang
performed, passed, or endured alone: สันโดษ

More languagesFewer languages

solitary in Vietnamese: đơn độc

Examples of solitary in a sentence

First a solitary blackbird started up, and soon the whole forest was alive with birdsong.
We saw a solitary goth hanging out on a ledge by the train station.
First a solitary blackbird started up, but soon the whole forest was alive with birdsong.

All 40 example sentences with solitary

Synonyms of solitary

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of solitary

Forms of solitary

plural	solitaries

Plural of solitary: solitaries

Origin of solitary

From Middle English solitarie, borrowed from Latin sōlitārius. Doublet of solitaire.

Words formed from solitary

Phrases with solitary

Questions about solitary

What does solitary mean?: Solitary means one who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchorite, hermit or recluse.
What is solitary in Malayalam?: Solitary in Malayalam is ഏകാന്ത (ēkānta). See Solitary meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is solitary?: Solitary can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce solitary?: Solitary is pronounced /ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/ (US).
What is the plural of solitary?: The plural of solitary is solitaries.

Words near solitary in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: solitary (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-solitary.ogg.

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