solely
Americanadverb
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as the only one or ones.
solely responsible.
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exclusively or only.
plants found solely in the tropics.
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merely.
She wanted solely to get out of the house for a while.
adverb
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only; completely; entirely
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without another or others; singly; alone
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for one thing only
Etymology
Origin of solely
Explanation
Solely is another word for "only" or "entirely": Your new puppy is solely your responsibility — you have to feed it, walk it, and take care of it all by yourself. Solely comes from the Latin sola, the feminine form of "alone," and if you know other Romance languages, you'll recognize it in, for instance, Italian solo, or Spanish solamente and French seulement. In English, a solo is a song you sing alone.
Vocabulary lists containing solely
"Shooting an Elephant"
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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5.4: The Second Industrial Revolution (Sources 1–8)
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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.
Is he living solely off his Social Security?
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 22, 2026
The chain, which had solely been a purveyor of wedding dresses, has transitioned to serving brides during their entire planning process with AI, Kelly Cook, the chief executive of the Pennsylvania-based company, recently told me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026
The researchers are solely responsible for the study's content, which does not necessarily reflect the official positions of the National Institutes of Health.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
But he says "more than 30 years worth of behaviors" will need altering to make the railway run solely in the interests of the customer.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
This particular case study on West African music relies solely on aural learning, which means that a rote method is applicable to the music learning.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
