Word.ws English Dictionary

self-willed

self-willed adjective: obstinate; strong-minded; unyielding to the desires, concern or opinions of others.

Adjective

self-willed (comparative more self-willed, superlative most self-willed)

  1. Obstinate; strong-minded; unyielding to the desires, concern or opinions of others.
    • Emma perceived that the nature of his gallantry was a little self-willed, and that he would rather oppose than lose the pleasure of dancing with her; but she took the compliment, and forgave the rest. Had she intended ever to marry him, it might have been worth while to pause and consider, and try...1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume II, chapter 11
    • But then Pen was different. Pen was a man. It seemed natural somehow that he should be self-willed and should have his own way.1948-50, William Makepeace Thackeray, Pendennis, ch 25
  2. Possessing self-will; determined to pursue one's own desires or adhere to one's own opinion..
    • The idea of self-willed machines, which could decide to take over the world, scares all the people smart enough to create such devices.

self-willed meaning in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada

self-willed in Tamil

விடாப்பிடியான, உறுதியான

self-willed in Malayalam

contrary, wilful, perverse
സ്വേച്ഛാചാരിയായ, തന്നിഷ്ടക്കാരനായ, തന്നിഷ്ടമായ, ശാഠ്യമുള്ള, ഇച്ഛാശക്തിയുള്ള, സ്വൈരി

self-willed in Kannada

ಸ್ವಬುದ್ಧಿಯ, ಮೊಂಡ, ಹಟಮಾರಿ, ದುರಾಗ್ರಹದ, ಒಟ್ಟಿ

Examples of self-willed in a sentence

  • He was so self-willed that he refused to do anything that did not grant instant satisfaction or direction.
  • Emma perceived that the nature of his gallantry was a little self-willed, and that he would rather oppose than lose the pleasure of dancing with her; but she took the compliment, and forgave the rest.1815, Jane Austen, Emma, volume II, chapter 11:

Forms of self-willed

comparativemore self-willed
superlativemost self-willed

Origin of self-willed

From Middle English selfe-willed, selwillyd, equivalent to self- + willed. Compare Middle English onwille, anewil (“selfwilled, stubborn”), from Old English ānwille (literally “one-willed, one's own-willed, self-willed”).

Words formed from self-willed

Questions about self-willed

What does self-willed mean?
Self-willed means obstinate; strong-minded; unyielding to the desires, concern or opinions of others.
What is self-willed in Tamil?
Self-willed in Tamil is விடாப்பிடியான, உறுதியான. See Self-willed meaning in Tamil.
How do you use self-willed in a sentence?
He was so self-willed that he refused to do anything that did not grant instant satisfaction or direction.
What part of speech is self-willed?
Self-willed is an adjective.

Words near self-willed in the dictionary

  1. self-violence
  2. self-waiting table
  3. self-watering
  4. self-weighing
  5. self-will
  6. self-willed
  7. self-willedly
  8. self-willedness
  9. self-winding
  10. self-worship
  11. self-worth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self-willed (page history and authors); self-willed (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); self-willed (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); self-willed (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.

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