will
[wɪɫ]
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 6.45 in modern English
7
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.
verb
To be able to, to have the capacity to.
verb
Expressing a present tense or perfect tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".
verb
To habitually do (a given action).
Example Sentences
- "Do not forget, will you?"
- "Will you be doing the shopping this evening? If so, will you do mine too, please?"
- "Won't you have another glass of wine? — No, I think I’ll go to bed."
- "Can somebody lend me a hand? — I will."
- "I'm going to quit smoking. I really will!"
- "The President will arrive at 10.00 — Will she be wanting lunch?"
Etymology
From Middle English willen, wullen, wollen, from Old English willan (“to want”), from Proto-West Germanic *willjan, from Proto-Germanic *wiljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”). Cognates Cognate with Yola ill, weel, well, will, woul, wull (“will”), North Frisian wale, wel (“to want”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian wolle (“to want”), Alemannic German and Central Franconian welle (“to want”), Cimbrian béllan, bölln (“to want”), Dutch willen (“to want”), German wollen (“to want”), Low German wüllen (“to want; will”), Luxembourgish wëllen (“to want”), Yiddish וועלן (veln, “to want”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ville (“to want”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish vilja (“to want”), Jamtish vili (“to want; wish”), Norwegian Nynorsk vilja, vilje (“want; will”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wiljan, “to want”); also Latin velle (“wish”, verb), voleō, volo (“to please, to wish; to want”), French vouloir (“to want”), Italian volere (“to want”), Irish fleá, fleadh (“feast”), Scottish Gaelic fleadh (“feast”), Welsh gwledd (“banquet, feast”), Lithuanian viltis (“to hope; to rely; to expect”), Czech velet (“to command”), volit (“to choose; to elect”), Polish woleć (“to prefer”), Russian во́ля (vólja, “freedom”), во́льный (vólʹnyj, “free”), веле́ть (velétʹ, “to command, to enjoin, to order”), Ukrainian воля (volja, “freedom, liberty, will”), вільний (vilʹnyj, “free”), веліти (velity, “to will, to order, to command”), воліти (volity, “to will, to prefer”), Old Armenian գեղձ (gełj, “desire, wish”), Sanskrit वृणीते (vṛṇīte), वृणोति (vṛṇoti, “to choose”). The verb is not always distinguishable from Etymology 3, below. (indicating future action): Compare typologically Bulgarian ще (šte), Macedonian ќе (ḱe), Serbo-Croatian хтети (< Proto-Slavic *xotěti).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: [wɪɫ]
- British English: [wɪɫ]
Usage
Subject
Wiktionary places this term in Law.
Inflected Forms
willing (participle, present)
would (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
would (first person, past)
wilt (archaic, present)
willst (archaic, present)
willest (archaic, present)
would (past, second person)
wouldst (archaic, past)
wouldest (archaic, past)
would (past, singular)