solitaire
Americannoun
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Also called patience. any of various games played by one person with one or more regular 52-card packs, part or all of which are usually dealt out according to a given pattern, the object being to arrange the cards in a predetermined manner.
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a game played by one person alone, as a game played with marbles or pegs on a board having hollows or holes.
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a precious stone, especially a diamond, set by itself, as in a ring.
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any of several American thrushes of the genus Myadestes, having short, broad bills and noted for their beautiful songs.
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a large extinct flightless bird of the genus Pezophaps, related to the dodo but with a longer neck, smaller bill, and longer legs, that inhabited the Mascarene Islands.
noun
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Also called: pegboard. a game played by one person, esp one involving moving and taking pegs in a pegboard or marbles on an indented circular board with the object of being left with only one
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the US name for patience
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a gem, esp a diamond, set alone in a ring
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any of several extinct birds of the genus Pezophaps, related to the dodo
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any of several dull grey North American songbirds of the genus Myadestes: subfamily Turdinae (thrushes)
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of solitaire
1350–1400; Middle English < French < Latin sōlitārius solitary
Explanation
Solitaire is a game you can play all by yourself—all you need is a deck of cards. And just as solitaire is a game for one, a single diamond in a ring is also a solitaire. Another name for the solitaire card game is patience. There are variations on this game, but most involve sorting cards into suits by ranking numbers (king, queen, jack, ten, etc.). The Latin root at the heart of this lonely word is solitarius, "alone or isolated." Originally, a solitaire was a widow, and eventually the word came to mean any solitary person. In the 18th century, the "gemstone" and "card game" meanings evolved.
Vocabulary lists containing solitaire
Be a Perfect Person in Just Three Days!
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The Infinite Questions of Dottie Bing
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Swing
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The team also identified a new solitaire coral, that are described in another study.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 2, 2026
She tends to her garden, plays solitaire on her computer, follows the Dodgers and has a favorite player — Shohei Ohtani.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2025
According to People Magazine at the time, Affleck proposed with a custom-made Harry Winston pink-diamond solitaire ring.
From Salon ● Aug. 22, 2024
At another, Monet challenged an orc to solitaire instead of fighting it.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 24, 2024
She always charged double to the swankily dressed; at solitaire she cheated like mad.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
The piece eventually spawned a bridal and commitment jewelry line, introduced in September, that is at once charming and impertinent: black diamonds, solitaires with inverted settings, and outré inscriptions.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2011
Sometimes at night, she could hear the cries of the quail doves and solitaires interspersed with the songs from the aviary.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
He read, played the phonograph, and tried all the solitaires he knew; but a hundred times he sensed the want of the pleasant voice of the girl in his ears.
From The Pagan Madonna by Koerner, W. H. D. (William Henry Dethlef)
Magnificent solitaires gleamed in her ears, and there was a star composed of the same precious stones among the massive braids of her golden hair.
From Mona by Sheldon, Georgie, Mrs.
Loneliness, like the sea breeze, blowing off from a thousand leagues of blankness, he did not find, as veteran solitaires do, if anything, too bracing.
From The Confidence-Man by Melville, Herman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
