different between solitary vs solitude

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?l?t??i/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?l?t?i/

Etymology 1

From Middle English [Term?], borrowed from Latin s?lit?rius.

Noun

solitary (countable and uncountable, plural solitaries)

1. (countable) One who lives alone, or in solitude; an anchoret, hermit or recluse.
   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 24]:

     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.

2. (uncountable) Solitary confinement.

   The prisoners who started the riot were moved to solitary.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:recluse

Translations

Adjective

solitary (not comparable)

1. Living or being by oneself; alone; having no companion present
2. Performed, passed, or endured alone

3. Not much visited or frequented; remote from society

4. Not inhabited or occupied; without signs of inhabitants or occupation; desolate; deserted
   • 1769, Bible (King James Version), Lamentations 1.1

     How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!
5. gloomy; dismal, because of not being inhabited.
6. Single; individual; sole.
7. (botany) Not associated with others of the same kind.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

solitary

1. (archaic) The Rodrigues solitaire (Pezophaps solitaria), an extinct flightless bird.

Anagrams

• royalist

English

Etymology

From Old French solitude; synchronically, sole +? -itude.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?s?l??tju?d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?s?l??tud/
• Hyphenation: sol?i?tude

Noun

solitude (countable and uncountable, plural solitudes)

1. Aloneness; state of being alone or solitary, by oneself.

   Synonym: aloneness

   Antonym: intimacy

2. A lonely or deserted place.
   • 1813, Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos, Canto 2, stanza 20:

     Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease!
     He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace.

   • 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift [Avon ed., 1976, p. 193]:

     Cranks like Rousseau made solitude glamorous, but sensible people agreed that it was really terrible.

Derived terms

• two solitudes

Related terms

• sole
• solo
• soliloquy
• solitary
• solitudinous
• solitudinously

Translations

See also

• loneliness

Further reading

• solitude on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• outslide, slideout, toluides

French

Etymology

From Latin s?lit?d?, corresponding to s?lus (“alone”) + -t?d?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s?.li.tyd/

Noun

solitude f (plural solitudes)

1. solitude

Related terms

• solitaire
• seul

Further reading

• “solitude” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Noun

solitude f (nominative singular solitude)

1. solitude

Descendants

• ? English: solitude
• French: solitude

Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin s?lit?d?, corresponding to s?lus (“alone”) + -t?d?.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /soli?tud??i/

Noun

solitude f (plural solitudes)

1. solitude

Related terms

• só
• solidão
• solitário