by oneself vs solo

by oneself

adv
  • without outside assistance 

prep
  • Alone; without assistance or help from others. 

  • Alone, without another's immediate company 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see by, oneself. 

solo

adv
  • Alone, without a companion. 

noun
  • A job or performance done by one person alone. 

  • A piece of music for one performer. 

  • A card game similar to whist in which each player plays against the others in turn without a partner 

  • A single shot of espresso. 

  • An instance of soloing the football. 

verb
  • To perform something in the absence of anyone else. 

  • To drop the ball and then toe-kick it upward into the hands. 

  • To perform a solo. 

adj
  • Of, or relating to, a musical solo. 

  • Without a companion or instructor. 

How often have the words by oneself and solo occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )