Which to use
“sole” is a noun and “solo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #27,493
- “sole” frequency rank
- #5,222
- “solo” frequency rank
- 32715
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sole | solo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nächster Stern zur Erde und Zentrum unseres Sonnensystems; Sonne | allein |
Letter map: sole vs solo
Shared letters muted; letters that set sole and solo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for sole / solo
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: sole is anoun and soloanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “sole” becomes o in “solo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32715, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sole is recorded at frequency rank #27,493, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsole]. solo is at rank #5,222, tagged as anadj, pronounced […].
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 32715, this pair ranks #1,701,581 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of sole vs solo
Shared letters: los. Private to "sole": e. Private to "solo": -.
"sole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "solo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sole" for "solo" ever safe?
Which is more common, "sole" or "solo"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "sole" and "solo".
- Full dictionary entry for "sole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "solo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,701,581 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sole" and "solo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sire vs sole". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #1,701,581 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.