Word.ws English Dictionary

reluctance

Syllables: re·luc·tance/ɹɪˈlʌktəns/

reluctance noun: unwillingness to do something.

Noun

reluctance (countable and uncountable, plural reluctances)

  1. Unwillingness to do something.
    • Our new dog shows reluctance to go on walks, preferring to be indoors.
  2. Hesitancy in taking some action.
  3. (archaic) Defiance, disobedience.
    • No more be mention’d then of violence / Against our selves, and wilful barrenness, / That cuts us off fom hope, and favours onely / Rancor and pride, impatience and despite, / Reluctance against God and his just yoke / Laid on our Necks.1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
  4. That property of a magnetic circuit analogous to resistance in an electric circuit.
    • That is to say, the total number of ampere-hours, including the drop of gilbertage, due to magnetic flux traversing the reluctance of the circuit, must be equal to zero.1903, The Electrical World and Engineer, volume 42, page 369

reluctance meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

reluctance in Hindi

unwillingness to do something
अनिच्छा anicchā

reluctance in Tamil

unwillingness to do something
தயக்கம் tayakkam
hesitancy in taking some action
தயக்கம் tayakkam

reluctance in Urdu

ہچکچاہٹ, پس و پیش

reluctance in Malayalam

വൈമനസ്യം, സമ്മതക്കേട്, വിമുഖത
More languagesFewer languages
reluctance in Kannada
ಬೇಕಿಲ್ಲದಿರುವಿಕೆ, ನಿರೀಚ್ಚೆ, ಹಿಂಜರಿಕೆ

Examples of reluctance in a sentence

  • With great reluctance, he was introduced to pomegranates, whenceforth he refused any other fruit.
  • In the early part of the Cancon era, CKLW demonstrated considerable reluctance in programming legitimately locally-made singles.
  • Some of the exchangees showed a rigidity and reluctance to adapt.

All 27 example sentences with reluctance

Forms of reluctance

pluralreluctances

Origin of reluctance

From reluct + -ance. From Latin relū̆ctor (“to struggle against, oppose, resist”) + -ance, from re- (“back”) + luctor (“to struggle”).

Words formed from reluctance

Phrases with reluctance

Questions about reluctance

What does reluctance mean?
Reluctance means unwillingness to do something.
What is reluctance in Hindi?
Reluctance in Hindi is अनिच्छा (anicchā). See Reluctance meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is reluctance?
Reluctance is a noun.
How do you pronounce reluctance?
Reluctance is pronounced /ɹɪˈlʌktəns/.
What is the plural of reluctance?
The plural of reluctance is reluctances.

Words near reluctance in the dictionary

  1. relubrications
  2. relucencies
  3. relucency
  4. relucent
  5. reluct
  6. reluctance
  7. reluctance motor
  8. reluctance motors
  9. reluctances
  10. reluctancies
  11. reluctancy

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: reluctance (page history and authors); reluctance (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reluctance (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); reluctance (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-reluctance.ogg.

Cite this entry: “reluctance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/reluctance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.