adjective · neutral

sole

UK/səʊl/US/soʊl/SOLE

Band 6-7task2speaking

being the only one; single and exclusive (as in sole authority, sole author)

Examples

She was the sole author of the paper and therefore answered all queries from reviewers.

The company held sole rights to market the product in the region.

In many legal documents you will see the phrase 'sole responsibility'.

Band 8 sentence

As the sole author of the paper, she addressed both the theoretical framework and the empirical analysis.

Collocations

  • sole author
  • sole responsibility
  • sole rights

Word family

sole adjectivesolely adverbsoleness noun

Common mistakes

He is the sole responsible for the mistake.He is solely responsible for the mistake.

She was the sole of the paper.She was the sole author of the paper.

The sole rights were given to them.Sole rights were granted to them.

Say it for a higher band

5only6single7+sole

Synonyms

only

exclusive

Easily confused

only

She was the only candidate with the necessary qualifications.

exclusive

The company holds exclusive rights to distribute the product.

Related words

Learn this word with the rest of its set, and get reminded at the right time.

In Sublist 7

Learn it with its set