Word.ws English Dictionary

will

/wɪl/[wɪɫ]

will verb: used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.

Verb (1)

will (third-person singular simple present will, present participle willing, simple past would, no past participle)

  1. (auxiliary, no-past-participle) Used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.
    • Do not forget, will you?
    • Will you be doing the shopping this evening? If so, will you do mine too, please?
  2. (auxiliary, no-past-participle) To be able to, to have the capacity to.
    • Unfortunately, only one of these gloves will actually fit over my hand.
  3. (auxiliary, no-past-participle) Expressing a present tense or perfect tense with some conditional or subjective weakening: "will turn out to", "must by inference".
    • He will be home by now. He always gets home before 6 o'clock.
    • I can't find my umbrella. I will've left it at home this morning.
  4. (auxiliary, no-past-participle) To habitually do (a given action).
    • Boys will be boys.
    • People will talk.
  5. (auxiliary, no-past-participle) To choose or agree to (do something); used to express intention but without any temporal connotations, often in questions and negation.
    • Will you marry me?
    • What will you drink?
  6. (literary, no-past-participle, transitive, uncommon) To wish, desire (something).
    • Do what you will.
    • God willed it.
  7. (archaic, intransitive, no-past-participle) To wish or desire (that something happen); to intend (that).
    • Consider, if you will, the possibility that the sherry glasses were misplaced accidentally.
    • the disciples cam to Jesus sayinge unto hym: where wylt thou that we prepare for the to eate the ester lambe?1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Matthew
  8. (archaic, no-past-participle) Implying will go.
    • I’ll to England.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Noun (1)

will (plural wills)

  1. One's independent faculty of choice; the ability to be able to exercise one's choice or intention.
    • Of course, man's will is often regulated by his reason.
  2. The act of choosing to do something; a person’s conscious intent or volition.
    • Most creatures have a will to live.
    • The father chose the name and could change it later at his will.1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiii
  3. One's intention or decision; someone's orders or commands.
    • Eventually I submitted to my parents' will.
    • In the first place, although many people wanted nationalisation and it became the will of Parliament, there were many other people who did not want it, have never willingly accepted it, and never will.1958 January, 'Borderer', “Ten Years of British Railways”, in Railway Magazine, page 12
  4. Firmness of purpose, fixity of intent
    • Thus Mill’s case for the claim that happiness is the sole human end, put more carefully, is this: ‘Whatever is desired otherwise than as a means to some end beyond itself, and ultimately to happiness, is desired as itself a part of happiness, and is not desired for itself until has become so’...1998, John Skorupski,, Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Mill, John Stuart (1806–73)
    • ...surely the link could not have been with Churchill the brilliant, gallant and steadfast wartime leader who, by dint of character, will and language, turned near defeat into victory.2015, Dr. Harlan K. Ullman, Huffington Post 31 May 2015., "Winston Spencer Ghani"
  5. A formal declaration of one's intent concerning the disposal of one's property and holdings after death; the legal document stating such wishes.
    • “Uncle Barnaby was always father and mother to me,” Benson broke in; then after a pause his mind flew off at a tangent. “Is old Hannah all right—in the will, I mean?”1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 1, in Well Tackled!
  6. (archaic) That which is desired; one's wish.
    • I auow by this most sacred head / Of my deare foster child, to ease thy griefe, / And win thy will [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
  7. (archaic) Desire, longing. (Now generally merged with later senses.)
    • He felt a great will to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Verb (2)

will (third-person singular simple present wills, present participle willing, simple past and past participle willed or (rare) would)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To instruct (that something be done) in one's will.
  2. (transitive) To bequeath (something) to someone in one's will (legal document).
    • He willed his stamp collection to the local museum.
    Synonyms:
    bequeath, leave
  3. (transitive) To exert one's force of will (intention) in order to compel, or attempt to compel, something to happen or someone to do something.
    • All the fans were willing their team to win the game.
    • Her parents were watching her run, willing her on.

Proper noun capitalized: Will

Will

  1. A diminutive of the male given name William or, less often, other given names beginning with Wil-, such as Wilfred or Willard, from the Germanic languages; also used as a formal given name.
    • Make but my name thy loue, and loue that ſtill, / And then thou loueſt me for my name is Will.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 136”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC, signature I, recto
    • One of his neighbours opposite, a nice old guy with a stoop and a horrible little Yorkshire terrier, called him Bill - always had done and presumably always would, right up till the day he died. It actually irritated Will, who was not, he felt, by any stretch of the imagination, a Bill. Bill...1998, Nick Hornby, About A Boy, Victor Gollancz, published 1998, →ISBN, page 208
  2. A diminutive of the female given name Willow.
  3. A surname originating as a patronymic.

Noun (2) capitalized: Will

Will (plural Wills)

  1. A weak-side linebacker.
    • Will linebacker drops to turn-in, QB dropping dumps the ball off to HB.1997, F Henderson, M Olson, Football's West Coast Offense, page 7
    • Our Will linebacker, because he is away from the formation or to the split end, should be a great pursuit man and pass defender.
    • Will covers the back side hook zone on the weak side.2000, American Football Coaches Association, Defensive Football Strategies, page 25

will meaning in Hindi, Sanskrit, Arabic and Malay

will in Hindi

to wish or desire
आशा āśā, इच्छा icchā, कामना kāmnā, चाह cāh
indicating future action
होंगे hoṅge
one's independent faculty of choice
इच्छा icchā
act of choosing to do something; conscious intent or volition
इच्छा icchā

will in Sanskrit

act of choosing to do something; conscious intent or volition
इच्छा icchā

will in Arabic

one's independent faculty of choice
إرَادَة ʔirāda
act of choosing to do something; conscious intent or volition
رَغْبَة raḡba, إرَادَة ʔirāda
intention or decision
إرَادَة ʔirāda

will in Malay

indicating future action
akan
More languagesFewer languages
will in Indonesian
akan, kehendak, hendak
will in Persian
آرزو ârezu, خواسته xâste, اختیار extiyâr
will in Thai
จะ jà, ปณิธาน bpà-ní-taan, ประณิธาน, เจตจำนง
will in Vietnamese
sẽ
will in Myanmar
နောင် naung, မည် many, အံ့ am.

Examples of will in a sentence

  • 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?
  • If you will come this way, I’ll show you your bedroom.
  • I said I’d help, and help I will.
  • If your sis won’t be here on Thu, we’d better cancel the booking. — I will pray that she arrives on time.

All 40 example sentences with will

Synonyms of will

All synonyms of will

Forms of will

third-person singular presentwill
present participlewilling
pastwould
alternative contraction'll
alternative pronunciation-spellingvill
alternative pronunciation-spellingweel
third-person singular presentwills
past participlewilled
pastwilled
second-person singular present (archaic)wilt
second-person singular present (archaic)willst
second-person singular present (archaic)willest
second-person singular past (archaic)wouldst
second-person singular past (archaic)wouldest
alternative form (obsolete)wil
alternative form (obsolete)wille
alternative form (obsolete)woll
alternative form (obsolete)wyll

Past tense of will: would

Plural of will: wills

Origin of will

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”)...

From Middle English wille, from Old English willa (compare verb willian), from Proto-Germanic *wiljô (“desire, will”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”). Cognate with Dutch wil, German Wille, Swedish vilja, Norwegian vilje.

From Middle English willen, from Old English willian (“to will”), from Proto-West Germanic *willjōn (“to will”), from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”). Cognate with German Low German willen, German willen. The verb is not always distinguishable from Etymology 1, above.

Words formed from will

Phrases with will

73 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with will

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about will

What does will mean?
Will means used to express the future tense, sometimes with an implication of volition or determination when used in the first person. Compare shall.
What is will in Hindi?
Will in Hindi is आशा (āśā), इच्छा (icchā), कामना (kāmnā). See Will meaning in Hindi.
How do you use will in a sentence?
Can somebody lend me a hand? — I will.
What part of speech is will?
Will can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce will?
Will is pronounced /wɪl/.
What is the past tense of will?
The past tense of will is would.

Words near will in the dictionary

  1. Wilkowski
  2. Wilkowskis
  3. wilks
  4. Wilks's theorem
  5. Wilkur
  6. will
  7. will call
  8. will calls
  9. will contest
  10. will contests
  11. will contract

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: will (page history and authors); Will (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-will.wav, en-us-will.ogg.

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