solitary
- noun
- /ˈsɑːləˌtɛri/
- He has always been a solitary, preferring to read books rather than socialize with others.
Examples
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A solitary can evoke, but cannot fake desire.
Fiction book (2001) -
She's she says letters were first invented for comforting such solitary wretches as myself.
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What is it to be a solitary person?
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Late in life, he remarked that he had always been a natural solitary.
Academic text (2014) -
A very solitary person, but I'm nested within the context of a very happy marriage and so and a business for that matter.
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Are in fact we becoming more and more a nation of solitaries and and couch potatoes?
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In fact, Yeats is still writing about a solitary fisherman.
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Like it seems if you're a person that likes to be a solo Ranger type A, go get a solitary, you know, like workhorse.
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So I am no longer a solitary exception, and I speak for the vast majority of Hong Kong people who feel they've been let down by the British.
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Edith Wharton claimed that her friend Henry James was a solitary who could not live alone, and Tadi wrote of Marcel Proust that he was "a recluse who was unable to live alone."
Academic text (2011)
Synonyms
A person who prefers to be alone and avoids spending time with others
A person who lives alone away from other people, often for religious reasons
A person who lives alone and avoids other people
A person who prefers to do things alone rather than with others
A person who lives alone and avoids meeting other people
A person who chooses to live alone away from other people
A person who prefers to act or be alone without help
Antonyms
Compounds
Guards keep a prisoner alone and away from other prisoners as punishment or for safety
- Specialized
A single wave that travels long distances without changing shape or losing energy
A small North American plant with soft white, woolly flower heads that often grows alone
- Archaic
A small songbird from eastern North America with a blue-grey head and green body that often looks for food alone
How Social
Surface Forms
Etymology
Solitary comes from the Latin root solus meaning 'alone', the same root as solo and sole. As a noun for a person, a solitary is someone who lives alone or avoids company, so the origin shows they choose to be 'alone'.