Word.ws English Dictionary

unwillingly

unwillingly adverb: in an unwilling or uncooperative manner.

Adverb

unwillingly (comparative more unwillingly, superlative most unwillingly)

  1. In an unwilling or uncooperative manner.
    • Mai unwillingly starts her journey, wondering how she, still dependent on her parents, can possibly be a reliable companion to her frail grandmother.2015 August 5, Cathryn M. Mercier, “‘Listen, Slowly,’ by Thanhha Lai”, in The New York Times

Antonyms of unwillingly

Forms of unwillingly

comparativemore unwillingly
superlativemost unwillingly

Origin of unwillingly

From unwilling + -ly or un- + willingly.

Questions about unwillingly

What does unwillingly mean?
Unwillingly means in an unwilling or uncooperative manner.
What part of speech is unwillingly?
Unwillingly is an adverb.

Words near unwillingly in the dictionary

  1. unwilled
  2. unwillful
  3. unwillfully
  4. unwillfulness
  5. unwilling
  6. unwillingly
  7. unwillingness
  8. unwillingnesses
  9. unwills
  10. unwilted
  11. unwilting

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unwillingly (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: “unwillingly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unwillingly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.