sol·i·tary
ˈsä-lə-ˌter-ē 
1
a
: being, living, or going alone or without companions
b
: saddened by isolation
2
: unfrequented, desolate
a solitary seashore
3
a
: taken, passed, or performed without companions
a solitary ramble
b
: keeping a prisoner apart from others
solitary confinement
4
: being at once single and isolated
a solitary example
5
a
: occurring singly and not as part of a group or cluster
flowers terminal and solitary
b
: not gregarious, colonial, social, or compound
solitary bees
plural solitaries
1
: one who lives or seeks to live a solitary life : recluse
2
: solitary confinement in prison
put him in solitary
Examples of solitary in a Sentence
Adjective
He took a solitary walk on the beach.
A solitary house stood on top of the cliff.
Most cats are solitary creatures.
He's a very solitary man.
Noun
The prisoner was kept in solitary.
weary of European civilization, the painter Paul Gauguin famously abandoned France to become a solitary in the South Seas
Recent Examples on the Web
Clayton Davis, Variety, 24 Oct. 2025
Mikkel Damsgaard and Fabio Carvalho have scored with their solitary big chances, too.
—Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
Julia Marnin, Miami Herald, 18 Sep. 2025
However, Local Law 42, the law limiting solitary, requires 14 hours per day of out-of-cell time.
—Graham Rayman, New York Daily News, 11 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for solitary
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Adjective
Set in the early 20th-century Pacific Northwest, the film stars Joel Edgerton as Robert Grainier, a solitary railroad worker navigating profound personal loss as the American frontier expands around him.
—Clayton Davis, Variety, 24 Oct. 2025
Mikkel Damsgaard and Fabio Carvalho have scored with their solitary big chances, too.
—Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 23 Oct. 2025
Noun
Nearly four of those years were spent in solitary at ICE’s Northwest Processing Center in Tacoma, Washington, where Daniel died on March 7, 2024, the report says.
—Julia Marnin, Miami Herald, 18 Sep. 2025
However, Local Law 42, the law limiting solitary, requires 14 hours per day of out-of-cell time.
—Graham Rayman, New York Daily News, 11 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for solitary
Cite this Entry
“Solitary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/solitary. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
solitary
1 of 2 adjective
sol·i·tary
ˈsäl-ə-ˌter-ē
1
: all alone
a solitary traveler
2
: seldom visited : lonely
3
: being the only one : sole
solitary example
4
: growing or living alone : not forming part of a group or cluster
flowers at the end of the stalk and solitary
the solitary wasps
solitarily
adverb
ˌsäl-ə-ˈter-ə-lē
solitariness
noun
ˈsäl-ə-ˌter-ē-nəs
Medical Definition
solitary
adjective
sol·i·tary
ˈsäl-ə-ˌter-ē
: occurring singly and not as part of a group
a solitary lesion
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