Word.ws English Dictionary

willingful

willingful adjective: willing; wilful.

Adjective

willingful (comparative more willingful, superlative most willingful)

  1. (nonstandard) willing; wilful
    • I am sorry, but if you are drunk, and got drunk willingly, and had willingful (thus conscious) sex with someone, IMO a rape has not taken place.1993 July 21, Charles Savoie, “UMD Rapist Poster Another Perspective”, in alt.feminism (Usenet), retrieved 03 Apr 2022
    • Science fiction requires the reader's `willingful suspension of disbelief' to accomodate^([sic]) different laws of nature, or laws of nature as we have discovered them (technology).
    • Fantasy requires the reader's `willingful suspension of disbelief' to accomodate^([sic]) different natural and supernatural laws (e.g. magic).1996 November 21, m...@mole-end.matawan.nj.us, “recommended books for sf writers”, in misc.writing (Usenet), retrieved 03 Apr 2022

Forms of willingful

comparativemore willingful
superlativemost willingful

Origin of willingful

From willing + -ful.

Questions about willingful

What does willingful mean?
Willingful means willing; wilful.
What part of speech is willingful?
Willingful is an adjective.

Words near willingful in the dictionary

  1. Willingdon
  2. Willingdon and Jevington
  3. willinger
  4. Willingers
  5. willingest
  6. willingful
  7. Willingham
  8. Willinghams
  9. willinghearted
  10. willinghood
  11. willingly

Source and license

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