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)
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.
Alexandra Marginean, a 24-year-old intern living in Munich said she was surprised to see the pro-Israel video pop up in the middle of her game of Solitaire.
From Reuters • Oct. 30, 2023
Oseman wrote her first book, Solitaire, when she was just 17 and it was published when she was 19.
From BBC • Jun. 3, 2023
Once the neurointerventionalists started adapting the Solitaire stent for use in EVT, the medical-device manufacturers quickly caught up, designing thrombectomy-specific versions, which began to roll out around 2010.
From New York Times • Mar. 1, 2023
Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell The Verge that the software maker has started testing games like Solitaire, Connect 4, and Wordament inside Microsoft Teams.
From The Verge • Jun. 14, 2022
The wind slings leaves around and shuffles their position as in a game of Solitaire.
From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer
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.
