Will

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /wɪl/

Definitions

1. The mental faculty by which one deliberately chooses or decides upon a course of action
2. The power to make conscious decisions and exercise control over one's actions and future plans is essential for personal autonomy
3. The capacity of the mind to consciously select and initiate actions

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "will" is that its modal use, the one that marks the future, grew out of the sense of wanting. The verb descends from Old English "willan," meaning "to want" or "to wish," and its roots reach back to a Proto-Indo-European stem meaning "to choose." Cognates across Germanic languages keep that sense of desire: German "wollen," Dutch "willen" and Swedish "vilja" all mean "to want." The noun, from Old English "willa," meant desire or inclination before it came to name the faculty of choosing, the power of choice. The future sense came through the same channel. Over time that intention shaded into simple futurity, and the modern auxiliary emerged. Many languages show the same drift; Bulgarian "ще" and Serbo-Croatian "хтети" follow a similar path, though they are separate developments rather than the source of the English one.

Synonyms: desire, intention, determination

Antonyms: reluctance, indifference, apathy