Solitude Meaning
/ˈsɒlɪˌtjuːd/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounAloneness; the state of being alone, solitary, or by oneself.
nounA lonely or deserted place.
Sentence Examples
We shouldn't confuse solitude with isolation. They are two separate things.
Some people enjoy solitude.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She sought ____ in the remote mountains to escape the constant city noise.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He often spent his weekends in ____, reading books and enjoying the peace of the countryside.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English solitude, from Old French solitude, from Latin sōlitūdō. By surface analysis, sole + -itude.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires."
— 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:
"Cranks like Rousseau made solitude glamorous, but sensible people agreed that it was really terrible."
— 1975, Saul Bellow, Humboldt’s Gift, New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →ISBN, page 193:
"As much as I definitely enjoy solitude / I wouldn't mind perhaps / Spending little time with you"
— 1995, “Possibly Maybe”, in Post, performed by Björk:
"Mark where his carnage and his conquests cease!
He makes a solitude, and calls it — peace."
— 1813, Lord Byron, Bride of Abydos, Canto 2, stanza 20:
"[S]uch an one […] recalls as a vision of Paradise the land he has learnt to love; he exaggerates the insalubrity of a northern climate; he bewails the wretched formality of our civilised life, and so, back to the distant solitudes flies his recollection like a dove to the wilderness."
— 1874, Georg August Schweinfurth, chapter I, in Ellen E. Frewer, transl., The Heart of Africa: Three Years' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of Central Africa, from 1868 to 1871, second edition, volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Low, And Searle, translation of Im Herzen von Afrika, Botanical Ardour:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She sought ____ in the remote mountains to escape the constant city noise.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He often spent his weekends in ____, reading books and enjoying the peace of the countryside.