These two adjectives are not related, but one brings to mind the other—because people who are stolid often seem solid.
Solid means “without gaps or breaks, or multiple parts—made of one continuous piece”: we say that a blank sheet of paper is solid white. Statues are solid. A stone wall is solid. When a person speaks for 15 minutes without a break, we say “they spoke for a solid 15 minutes.”
Stolid means “stoic,” and can only describe people—unexpressive, unemotional, silent, impassive, blank-faced, or more colloquially, stone-walling. Stolid can have the positive connotations of steady, reliable, and strong, i.e., metaphorically solid. Stolid can also imply dull or stupid.
More Examples of “Solid” in a Sentence
- 3D solid modeling efficiently draws higher quality representations of solids than conventional line drawing.
- If the solvent is a solid, then gases, liquids, and solids can be dissolved.
- The chamber bowl has a high capacity for solids but there is no solid discharge.
- She can magnify and shape shadows into solid or semi-solid forms.
- In parts of this area they formed a solid majority until about 1900.
More Examples of “Stolid” in a Sentence
- Riz is guarded but stolid, reluctant to take any route forward that isn’t entirely legal.
- He invigorated a stolid locker room with his energy and leadership, the rare outsider elected as captain.
- Utterly stolid are perhaps the best two words to describe me.
- DiCaprio is loose and limber where the other players are stolid.
- But she stumbled through it all with the usual stolid fortitude.