good-will
good-will is the dated form of goodwill.
Meaning of goodwill
Noun
goodwill (usually uncountable, plural goodwills)
- A favorably disposed attitude toward someone or something.
- Synonyms:
- benevolence
- The value of a business entity not directly attributable to its tangible assets and liabilities, deriving from factors such as consumer loyalty to the brand.
- The ability of an individual or business to exert influence within a community, club, market or another type of group, without having to resort to the use of an asset (such as money or property), either directly or by the creation of a lien.
- The willingness of a worker to perform activities not strictly within the scope of the employment contract and not just work to rule.
- As Denning MR said in Secretary of State for Employment v ASLEF (No. 2) (1972): 'a man is not bound to do more for his employer than his contract requires. He can withdraw his goodwill if he pleases.'2007 [1972], John Duddington, quoting Tom Denning, Baron Denning, Employment Law, Pearson Education, →ISBN, page 101
- A thrift shop.
- Buy from goodwills, garage sales, friends, and neighbors. Choose beautiful, functional, durable items made by craftspeople.1990, Karen Christensen, Home Ecology: Simple and Practical Ways to Green Your Home, Fulcrum Publishing, page 65
Questions about good-will
- What is good-will the dated form of?
- Good-will is the dated form of goodwill.
Words near good-will in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: good-will (page history and authors); goodwill (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “good-will.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/good-will. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
