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PlainSpell

solitary

/ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/noun, adjective

solitary is spelled S-O-L-I-T-A-R-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is solatary: about 170 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 31 of all searches for the word. Solitary is a noun meaning “One who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchorite, hermit or recluse”. The plural of solitary is solitaries.

How many letters and syllables are in solitary?

Letters8: S-O-L-I-T-A-R-Y
Syllables4 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, solatary, about 170 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell solitary?

Solitary is spelled S-O-L-I-T-A-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 31 of the searches for solitary in either form.

solitarythe right spelling5,180 searches a month
solatarya in place of i170 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is solitary?

Solitary appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce solitary?

  • US /ˈsɑlɪˌtɛɹi/
  • UK /ˈsɒlɪt(ə)ɹi/

Solitary has 4 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-solitary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with solitary

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

solitaire vs solitary0 B

Also written: solitaire.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with solitary?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as solitary (/ɑlɪtɛɹi/).

Spelled with the same letters in another order: royalist.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of solitary

  • solitaries plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does solitary mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    One who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchorite, hermit or recluse.

  2. 2

    Ellipsis of solitary confinement.

    The prisoners who started the riot were moved to solitary.

  3. 3

    The state of being solitary; solitude

adjective

  1. 1

    Living or being by oneself; alone; having no companion present

  2. 2

    Performed, passed, or endured alone.

    a solitary journey

  3. 3

    Not much visited or frequented; remote from society

    a solitary residence or place

  4. 4

    Not inhabited or occupied; without signs of inhabitants or occupation; desolate; deserted

    the solitary desert

  5. 5

    Gloomy; dismal, because of not being inhabited.

  6. 6

    Single; individual; sole.

    a solitary example

  7. 7

    Not associated with others of the same kind.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Solitary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsolitaire (one who lives alone), seul (living alone or being by oneself)
GermanEinsiedler, Einsiedlerin (one who lives alone), alleinstehend, einsiedlerisch (living alone or being by oneself), einsam (performed, passed, or endured alone), abgeschieden (not much visited or frequented; remote from…)
Portuguesesolitário (one who lives alone), só (living alone or being by oneself)
Spanishsolitario (one who lives alone)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does solitary come from?

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

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after solitary