Emily Dickinson Lexicon

loneliness, n. [see lonely, adj.]

1. Solitude; isolation; reclusiveness; single status; solitary existence; lack of companionship; retirement from fellowship; seclusion from other people; withdrawal from social relations.
2. Emptiness; void; seeming nothingness; [fig.] existential crisis.
3. Desolation; bleakness; forlornness; lonesomeness; [fig.] death; separation from loved ones by dying.
4. Longing; pining; homesickness; nostalgia; yearning for a loved one's presence.
5. Grief; heartache; sorrow at the loss of a loved one.
6. Solemnity; gravity; somberness; perfect privacy; sublime solitude; profound reverence; sense of a divine presence.