• • (RP) IPA: /səʊl/, [sɒʊɫ]
  • (New Zealand, Australia) IPA: /sɐʉl/, [sɒʊɫ]
  • (America) IPA: /soʊl/

From Middle English sole, soule, from Old French sol, soul, from Latin sōlus.

sole (not comparable)

1. Only.

   Synonyms: Thesaurus:sole

   • 1905, H. G. Wells, The Empire of the Ants:

     He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to some strange exceptional process of decay.

2. (legal) Unmarried (especially of a woman); widowed.

   Synonyms: lone

3. Unique; unsurpassed.

   The sole brilliance of this gem.

4. With independent power; unfettered.

   A sole authority.

• French: unique, seul
• German: einzig
• Italian: unico, solo
• Portuguese: único
• Russian: еди́нственный
• Spanish: solo, único

• French: célibataire
• German: ledig, unverheiratet, alleinstehend
• Portuguese: solteiro
• Russian: нежена́тый

From Middle English sole, soole, from Old English sole, solu.

sole (plural soles)

1. (anatomy) The bottom or plantar surface of the foot.

   Synonyms: planta

2. (footwear) The bottom of a shoe or boot.
   • 1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations, page 147 ↗:

     The Caliga was a military Shoe, with a very thick Sole, tied above the instep with leather Thongs.

3. (obsolete) The foot itself.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗, stanza 9:

     Hast wandred through the world now long a day;Yet ceasest not thy wearie soles to lead

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Genesis 8:9 ↗:

     But the doue found no rest for the sole of her foote, and she returned vnto him into the Arke: […]

4. (fish) Solea solea, a flatfish of the family Soleidae; a true sole.
5. A flatfish resembling those of the family Soleidae.
6. The bottom or lower part of anything, or that on which anything rests in standing.
   1. The bottom of the body of a plough; the slade.
   2. The bottom of a furrow.
   3. The end section of the chanter of a set of bagpipes.
   4. The horny substance under a horse's foot, which protects the more tender parts.

      Coordinate term: frog

   5. (military) The bottom of an embrasure.
   6. (nautical) A piece of timber attached to the lower part of the rudder, to make it even with the false keel.
   7. (nautical) The floor inside the cabin of a yacht or boat
7. (mining) The seat or bottom of a mine; applied to horizontal veins or lodes.

• French: plante, plante du pied
• German: Fußsohle
• Italian: pianta
• Portuguese: sola, planta do pé
• Russian: подо́шва
• Spanish: planta, planta del pie

• French: semelle
• German: Sohle, Schuhsohle
• Italian: suola
• Portuguese: sola
• Russian: подо́шва
• Spanish: suela

• French: sole
• German: Seezunge
• Italian: sogliola
• Portuguese: solha, linguado
• Russian: морско́й язы́к
• Spanish: lenguado

sole (soles, present participle soling; simple past and past participle soled)

1. (transitive) To put a sole on a shoe or a boot.

• French: semeler
• German: besohlen
• Italian: suolare
• Portuguese: solar
• Russian: подбить новые подмётки

From Middle English sole, soole, from Old English sāl, from Proto-Germanic *sailą, *sailaz, *sailō, from Proto-Indo-European *sey-.

sole (plural soles)

1. (dialectal or obsolete) A wooden band or yoke put around the neck of an ox or cow in the stall.

From Middle English sol, from Old English sol, from Proto-Germanic *sulą, from Proto-Indo-European *sūl-.

sole (plural soles)

1. (dialectal, Northern England) A pond or pool; a dirty pond of standing water.

From earlier sowle.

sole (soles, present participle soling; simple past and past participle soled)

1. (transitive, UK dialectal) To pull by the ears; to pull about; haul; lug.

1. A sea area, corresponding to the Sole Bank, to the north of FitzRoy