solitaire vs solitary, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“solitaire” and “solitary” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,733
“solitaire” frequency rank: #10,771
“solitary” frequency rank: 39504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	solitaire	solitary
Definition	A person who lives alone; a recluse or hermit.	One who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchorite, hermit or recluse.

Where the eye mixes solitaire and solitary

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. solitaire runs 9 letters (CVCVCVVCV) against solitary's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch

solitaire

8 ch

solitary

Visual trap between solitaire and solitary

A purely visual mix-up. solitaire (/ˈsɒl.ɪˌtɛə(ɹ)/) and solitary (/ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

solitaire is recorded at frequency rank #28,733, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɒl.ɪˌtɛə(ɹ)/. solitary is at rank #10,771, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/.

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 39504, this pair ranks #276,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of solitaire vs solitary

Shared letters: ailorst. Private to "solitaire": e. Private to "solitary": y.

"solitaire" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVCV · "solitary" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

solitaire ← oslitaire · sloitaire · soiltaire · soliatire · solitaier · solitairre · solitarie · solitiare
solitary ← oslitary · sloitary · soiltary · soliatry · solitarry · solitaryy · solitayr · solitray

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "solitaire" and "solitary" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈsɒl.ɪˌtɛə(ɹ)/ versus /ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "solitaire" or "solitary"?

"solitary" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,771 in our English list, against #28,733 for "solitaire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "solitaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "solitary" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #276,059 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"solitaire" and "solitary" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "salivary vs solitary". 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 #276,059 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.