Solitude, n.
Etymology: [F., from L. solitudo, solus alone. See Sole, a.]
1. state of being alone, or withdrawn from society; a lonely life; loneliness. Whosoever is delighted with solitude is either a wild beast or a god. Bacon. O Solitude! where are the charms That sages have seen in thy face Cowper.
2. Remoteness from society; destitution of company; seclusion; -- said of places; as, the solitude of a wood. The solitude of his little parish is become matter of great comfort to him. Law.
3. solitary or lonely place; a desert or wilderness. In these deep solitudes and awful cells Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells. Pope.
Syn. Loneliness; soitariness; loneness; retiredness; recluseness. -- Solitude, Retirement, Seclusion, Loneliness. Retirement is a withdrawal from general society, implying that a person has been engaged in its scenes. Solitude describes the fact that a person is alone; seclusion, that he is shut out from others, usually by his own choice; loneliness, that he feels the pain and oppression of being alone. Hence, retirement is opposed to a gay, active, or public life; solitude, to society; seclusion, to freedom of access on the part of others; and loneliness, enjoyment of that society which the heart demands. O blest retirement, friend to life's decline. Goldsmith. Such only can enjoy the country who are capable of thinking when they are there; then they are prepared for solitude; and in that [the country] solitude is prepared for them. Dryden. It is a place of seclusion from the external world. Bp. Horsley. These evils . . . seem likely to reduce it [a city] ere long to the loneliness and the insignificance of a village. Eustace.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for solitude; he lists it under retirement.
Where he writes about it:
In seclusion one shuts himself away from the society of all except intimate friends or attendants; in solitude no other person is present. — from retirement
While seclusion is ordinarily voluntary, solitude may be enforced; we speak of the solitude rather than the seclusion of a prisoner. — from retirement
There may be loneliness without solitude, as amid an unsympathizing crowd, and solitude without loneliness, as when one is glad to be alone. — from retirement