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.
Herrera solely disclosed $80,000 in income in 2024 from his company, The AK Guy, along with numerous sources of compensation in excess of $5,000, including creator payouts and merchandise sales from his YouTube presence.
From Salon ● Jul. 24, 2026
Research from wealth manager Quilter suggests almost half of couples do not share financial planning equally, with 46% acting alone in some way and more than one in 10 leaving one partner solely responsible.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
If, for example, the home was a Florida homestead property titled solely in your name, and you were survived by your husband and children, Florida law generally provides that your spouse receives a life estate.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
"Basically, we showed that it is not the plaques themselves, or solely dysfunctional neurons, that cause sleep loss but actually microglia," said Macauley.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
His afternoons and evenings were reserved solely for her.
From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson
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.
