Willed

How to spell willed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce willed

What does willed mean?

1. verbCaused something to happen through sheer determination or force of mind.
2. verbLeft property or money to someone through a legal will.

Willed in a sentence

• Exhausted at the finish line, she willed her legs to keep moving.

• Her aunt willed the cottage to the youngest grandchild.

• He willed himself to stay calm during the difficult meeting.

• The collector willed his entire library to the local museum.

Where does willed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'will', which traces back to the Old English 'willan', meaning 'to wish, to desire, or to be determined to do something'. That verb belongs to a wide family of Germanic relatives, including the German 'wollen' and the Dutch 'willen', and the same ancient root gives us the modern noun 'will', meaning both a person's determination and the legal document that records their final wishes. Over the centuries the verb branched into two practical senses: exerting mental force to make something happen, and formally bequeathing property after death. The doubled 'l' that survives in the spelling comes from the base word 'will', so the past tense simply adds '-ed' without changing it. Because the root has always carried the idea of strong personal intent, both the determined sense and the inheritance sense share one origin.

How the word is built

• will (root: to want, to determine, to bequeath)
• -ed (past tense suffix)