solitude
[sol-i-tood, -tyood]
- the state of being or living alone; seclusion: to enjoy one's solitude.
- remoteness from habitations, as of a place; absence of human activity: the solitude of the mountains.
- a lonely, unfrequented place: a solitude in the mountains.
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Origin of solitude
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.com1. retirement, privacy. Solitude, isolation refer to a state of being or living alone. Solitude emphasizes the quality of being or feeling lonely and deserted: to live in solitude. Isolation may mean merely a detachment and separation from others: to be put in isolation with an infectious disease. 2. loneliness. 3. desert, wilderness.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
isolation, loneliness, emptiness, seclusion, silence, retirement, wilderness, privacy, confinement, wasteland, detachment, withdrawal, solitariness, quarantine, separateness, waste, desert, lonesomeness, lonenessExamples from the Web for solitude
Contemporary Examples
Perhaps some of that solitude and bitterness found its way into Alec Leamas.
The Stacks: How The Berlin Wall Inspired John le Carré’s First MasterpieceJohn le Carré
November 8, 2014
The Dude is at his happiest when he has a few minutes of solitude and rest to get high and listen to whale sounds.
Solitude activates the imagination, and invites introspection.
Gabriel García Márquez, dead at 87, wrote a lot of great fiction, but nothing greater than One Hundred Years of Solitude.
In that first sentence of One Hundred Years of Solitude, there are two mysteries: the firing squad and the ice.
Historical Examples
I crave for the balm of Nature, the anodyne of solitude, the breath of Mother Earth.
Ballads of a BohemianRobert W. Service
In a forest, solitude would be life; in a city, it is death.
The New Adam and Eve (From "Mosses From An Old Manse")Nathaniel Hawthorne
It was musical,—but how should there be such music in my solitude?
Footprints on the Sea-Shore (From "Twice Told Tales")Nathaniel Hawthorne
She did not wish to be unkind, but her one absorbing idea at this moment was of solitude.
The DreamEmile Zola
How would she stand her solitude—absolutely alone in that house?
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
solitude
- the state of being solitary or secluded
- poetic a solitary place
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin sōlitūdō, from sōlus alone, sole 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for solitude
n.
mid-14c., from Old French solitude "loneliness" (14c.) and directly from Latin solitudinem (nominative solitudo) "loneliness, a being alone; lonely place, desert, wilderness," from solus "alone" (see sole (adj.)). "Not in common use in English until the 17th c." [OED]
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; ... if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. [Schopenhauer, "The World as Will and Idea," 1818]
Solitudinarian "recluse, unsocial person" is recorded from 1690s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper