Sole or soul?
sole is an adjective meaning “Only”; soul is a noun meaning “The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts…”. Use sole as an adjective and soul as a noun (soul is also an adjective: “Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture”). They sound the same (/səʊl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) soul is about 3.3 times as common as sole.
What is the difference between sole and soul?
| sole | soul | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun, adjective, verb |
| Meaning | Only Unmarried (especially of a woman); widowed The bottom or plantar surface of the foot | The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality, often believed to live on after the person's death The spirit or essence of anything Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture |
| Example | The sole brilliance of this gem | 18 January 1915, D. H. Lawrence, letter to William Hopkin I want to gather together about twenty souls and sail away from this world of war… |
| Forms | none | souls |
| Pronunciation | /səʊl/ [sɒʊɫ] /soʊl/ | /səʊl/ [sɔʊɫ] [sɒʊɫ] |
| In writing | 19 times per million words | 65 times per million words |
Sources: sole and soul in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of sole and soul
sole
- 1
Only
- 2
The bottom or plantar surface of the foot
- 3
To put a sole on a shoe or a boot
- 4
A pond or pool; a dirty pond of standing water
- 5
UKTo pull by the ears; to pull about; haul; lug
- 6
Unmarried (especially of a woman); widowed
- 7
The bottom of a shoe or boot
- 8
Unique; unsurpassed
The sole brilliance of this gem
soul
- 1
The spirit or essence of a person usually thought to consist of one's thoughts and personality, often believed to live on after the person's death
- 2
Characteristic of or pertaining to African American culture
soul music
- 3
To beg on All Soul's Day
- 4
The spirit or essence of anything
- 5
Life, energy, vigor
- 6
Cultural consciousness and pride among people of African American heritage
- 7
A strong positive feeling of intense sensitivity and emotional fervor conveyed especially by African American performers
- 8
Soul music
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, sole or soul?
sole appears 19 times per million words; soul 65 times per million words.
sole 19 times per million wordssoul 65 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search sole vs soul?
“sole vs soul” is searched about 880 times a month on Google and 40 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“soul vs sole”, “sole or soul”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.