wont
UK/wʌnt//wʌnt/
wont noun: one's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
Noun
wont (usually uncountable, plural wonts)
- One's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
- He awoke at the crack of dawn, as was his wont.
- [T]hey [Spartan youth] are by a ſudden alarum or watch-word, to be called out to their military motions, under ſky or covert, according to the ſeaſon, as was the Roman wont; […]1644, John Milton, Of Education, To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London: Printed for Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC; republished in The Works of John Milton, Historical, Political, and...
Adjective
wont (not comparable)
- Accustomed or used (to or with a thing), accustomed or apt (to do something).
- He is wont to complain loudly about his job.
- This is the ſuteltie of Satan, who vnder the shew of godly matters, deceaueth the vnaduyſed, as we are wont to ſay, that in the honye lyeth hidden the poiſon.1556, Anthoni de Adamo [Agostino Mainardi], “The Examinacion of the Kyrie Eleeson and of the Gloria in Excelsis Deo, and how that Many Praiers after the Gloria in Excelsis, be Wicked, and that the...
Verb
wont (third-person singular simple present wonts, present participle wonting, simple past and past participle wonted)
- To make (someone) used to; to accustom.
- I have heard it remarked by the old farmers, that when beasts are first transferred from one place to another, that if they keep them without food for two or three days, it will go far towards wonting them to their new situation.1830, [Joseph Plumb Martin], “Campaign of 1780”, in A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier; Interspersed with Anecdotes of Incidents that Occurred...
- To be accustomed (to something), to be in the habit (of doing something).
- What be the ſweet delights of learning a treaſure, / That wont with Comick ſock to beautify / The painted Theaters, and fill with pleaſure / The liſtners eyes, and eares with melodie; […]c. 1580, Edmund Spenser, “The Teares of the Mvses[: Thalia]”, in Complaints: Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. VVhereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for...
- But by record of antique times I finde / That wemen wont in warres to beare most ſway, / And to all great exploites them ſelues inclind: […]1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene. Disposed into Twelue Books, Fashioning XII. Morall Vertues, London: Printed [by John Wolfe] for VVilliam Ponsonbie, →OCLC, book III, canto II, stanza II, page...
wont meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
wont in Tamil
- வழக்கமான, பழக்கமான, கூடிய, வழக்கமாதல், பழக்கமாதல், கூடும்
wont in Urdu
- عادی, خوگر, پابند رسوم, رواجی, عادت, رسم
wont in Malayalam
- habitual way of doing things
- പതിവ് pativŭ
Examples of wont in a sentence
- […]when Sindbad the Seaman had related the history of what befel him in his sixth voyage, and all the company had dispersed, Sindbad the Landsman went home and slept as of wont.1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 563:
- […] I haue not that Alacrity of Spirit, / Nor cheere of Minde that I was wont to haue.c. 1591, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: With the Landing of Earle Richmond, and the Battell at Bosworth Field”, in...
- On ſome fond breaſt the parting ſoul relies, / Some pious drops the cloſing eye requires; / Ev'n from the tomb the voice of Nature cries, / Ev'n in our Aſhes live their wonted Fires.1751, [Thomas Gray], An Elegy Wrote in a Country Church-yard, London: Printed for R[obert] Dodsley in Pall-Mall; and sold by M[ary] Cooper...
Synonyms of wont
Forms of wont
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | wonts |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | wonts |
| present participle | wonting |
| past participle | wonted |
| past | wonted |
Origin of wont
From Middle English wont, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian (“to be accustomed to, dwell”), the noun sense possibly arising via conflation of wone (“custom, habit, practice”) and the adjective wont. Compare German Low German Gewohnte (“custom, habit”), Dutch gewoonte, Swedish van. Likely related to wone, wonder, wean, and win.
From Middle English wont, iwoned, from Old English ġewunod, past participle of ġewunian. Cognate with German gewohnt and Dutch gewend.
From Middle English wonten (“to accustom”), from wont (adjective). See above.
Words formed from wont
Words that rhyme with wont
Questions about wont
- What does wont mean?
- Wont means one's habitual way of doing things; custom, habit, practice.
- What is wont in Tamil?
- Wont in Tamil is வழக்கமான, பழக்கமான, கூடிய. See Wont meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use wont in a sentence?
- […]when Sindbad the Seaman had related the history of what befel him in his sixth voyage, and all the company had dispersed, Sindbad the Landsman went home and slept as of wont.
- What part of speech is wont?
- Wont can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce wont?
- Wont is pronounced /wʌnt/ (UK).
- What is the plural of wont?
- The plural of wont is wonts.
Words near wont in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wont (page history and authors); wont (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); wont (Urdu 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-wont.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wont.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wont. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.